New Girl in Town
by JohnGreenGirl
Summary: Set of AU one-shots where Luke and Lorelai develop a relationship much sooner than they do in the show-while Rory is still a baby.
1. New Girl in Town

Stars Hollow did not get new residents often—Luke Danes should know, as he'd lived there his whole life. Sometimes people moved away, but they usually came back. Tourists came, but they left once they got their fill of small town life. But new residents? That was almost unheard of.

"Look, there she is!" Miss Patty said just as Luke was setting her platter of pancakes in front of her. She almost knocked into Luke while elbowing Babette.

"Oh, what a doll!" Babette gushed while Luke re-filled her coffee cup. The whole town was buzzing about the new girl in town—and she was a girl, newly eighteen and with a baby in tow.

Luke knew plenty about the girl from talk around town: Mia had given her a maid job at the Independence Inn, where the girl and her baby also lived. From Mia, she already had a reputation as a hard worker. From Sookie, she had a reputation as vivacious and funny. She'd only been in town for about a week. No one knew where she'd come from.

Her name was Lorelai Gilmore. Her daughter's name was Rory. There was no father to speak of.

"Luke, honey, look up for once. It won't kill you to take a look at a pretty girl once in a while," Miss Patty chided him.

Since it was Stars Hollow, the whole town knew that Rachel, Luke's long-time girlfriend, had recently skipped town. Rachel left because Luke wouldn't. He wanted his diner, she wanted adventure.

Luke rolled his eyes and looked up to appease the older women. He knew very well the trouble he could get into by not appeasing Miss Patty and Babette.

Strolling around town with Sookie, her baby on her hip, was the infamous Lorelai Gilmore.

Luke knew a lot about Lorelai Gilmore, but here are some things he didn't know until he saw her: that she had wild dark curls, that her eyes were strikingly blue, that she had a presence about her that was strong and unapologetic.

The rest of Stars Hollow fell away. Luke only saw Lorelai as she passed by the diner.

"Oh, goodness, we can't be caught staring! We'll scare the poor girl! Look down, look down!" Babette exclaimed. The rest of the diner followed her suit, but not Luke. His eyes were stuck on her.

Rory, the baby, had her hand in her mom's hair, playing with a curl. Lorelai didn't move her hand away, allowing the baby to twist the strand around her tiny fingers. Just as she and Sookie passed the diner, Lorelai looked in Luke's direction.

She made eye contact with Luke, and he felt a jolt he hadn't felt before. Not with Rachel, nor Anna before her. Certainly not Crazy Carrie, who he _did_ make out with under the bleachers in high school, even if he emphatically denies it presently.

No, this was like an electric bolt to his heart, making it double and triple its pace as Lorelai's blue eyes gave him a once over. It was quick, just a second, but Lorelai must have decided she liked what she saw.

When her eyes met Luke's again, she gave him a big, bright smile. Luke felt like he was on autopilot as his own mouth stretched into a smile and he raised his hand in a small wave.

During this exchange, Babette and Miss Patty's attention shifted from the new girl to the good old boy.

"She is gonna do great things to this town," Miss Patty said with a smirk, giving Babette a smirk.

"What are you two on about?" Luke mumbled at them, taking a rag from his pocket and wiping down a table no one had even sat at that morning. He felt like he needed to give his hands, which were shaking ever so slightly, something to do.

Lorelai Gilmore, new girl in town. For the first time, Luke was glad that Stars Hollow was as small as it was—it meant there would almost definitely be more Lorelai Gilmore in his future.


	2. Luke Danes

"His name is Luke," Sookie told Lorelai casually. "Luke Danes."

Though Lorelai was a maid and Sookie on the kitchen staff at the Independence Inn, Mia had already seen the two young women become fast friends. Mia decided to give Lorelai some time for herself and volunteered to babysit Rory while she and Sookie ran errands for the inn.

"What?" Lorelai replied, flustered. She looked over at Sookie, who was picking over some strawberries in a fruit stand. From their position on the sidewalk, Luke's Diner was easily in view, and the owner was out front doing some lettering on his windows.

Lorelai had been watching as he worked. She liked his broad shoulders, clothed in green and blue plaid. She was trying to figure out the color of his hair—was it as dark as the stubble she'd seen on his cheeks a few weeks ago?—but it was all concealed under his backwards baseball cap. Lorelai was also trying to decide how old he was. Older than her, she'd decided, but _how_ _much_ older?

"I don't know what you're talking about," Lorelai continued, averting her eyes down and picking up a strawberry to put in Sookie's bag.

Sookie caught her hand and pointed to the faintest of bruises on the fruit, making a face at it. Lorelai felt doubly chastised—for being caught ogling and for the fruit. Sookie only accepted the best of the best to use in her cooking.

"You were totally checking Luke out!" Sookie teased, moving from strawberries to blueberries. Lorelai used the stack of mail they had collected on a different errand to smack Sookie on the arm.

"I was not checking the diner guy out."

Sookie laughed, the dimples in her cheeks appearing. "I never said Luke Danes was the diner guy."

Lorelai felt some heat rise in her cheeks. Sookie had her there.

 _Well, it's not like Chris is around_ , Lorelai reminded herself. She was allowed to look, if she wanted to.

Chris was the one who had left, even before she did. He didn't want Lorelai and Rory.

 _There's no harm in looking,_ Lorelai decides.


	3. The Coffee Incentive

"Coffee, please! Rory got stung by a bee yesterday when I took her outside to play, very not cool. The good news is she's not allergic, the bad news is she still got a fever from it and she was up all night so now I'm a bed-changing, laundry-doing, dusting zombie," Lorelai said, shuffling her way into the Independence Inn kitchen.

Sookie looked up from the whole chicken she was dressing to motion with her head.

"We're out, but I picked us up some this morning. I wrote your name on yours."

Lorelai picked up her to-go cup, a nondescript white thing with her name written in pink pen. Sookie had dotted the _i_ in her name with a tiny daisy.

"Where'd you get this?" Lorelai asked, skeptical of its quality since she couldn't identify its origins.

"Trust me, you'll like it," Sookie told her, giving the chicken before her a good dusting of herbs. As Sookie worked, there was a smile playing at her lips. Though they hadn't known each other long, Lorelai knew Sookie was up to something from the look on her face.

"Alright, but if I die, I want it engraved on my tombstone that it was your fault," Lorelai decided before tentatively lifting the cup to her mouth.

As Lorelai took a sip, Sookie watched her face, the smile she was trying to keep at bay breaking out on her face. After swallowing her mouthful of coffee, Lorelai held the cup out at arm's length. She was looking for some kind of identifying detail.

"I don't think they have cups with the logo on them yet," Sookie told her. Really, this was a lie—she'd taken the sleeve that bore Luke's logo off and tossed it in the trash.

"Sookie, this is the best cup of coffee I have ever had," Lorelai declared. "No offense. It's so perfect, I could serenate it."

And Lorelai did, holding the cup above her head, looking at it adoringly and singing out:

 _"_ _I will always loooooove yoooooou."_

Sookie grabbed her arm to lower it, giggling as the rest of the kitchen staff threw the two girls questioning looks.

"I'm glad you like it so much."

"It's amazing! You have to stop being so hush-hush and tell me where this wondrous liquid came from."

From Sookie's wide, dimpled smile, Lorelai should have known she was up to something.

"It's from Luke's!" Sookie exclaimed, practically bursting with the announcement.

Lorelai's face, and heart, fell. She was hoping against rationality that Sookie would say the coffee had come from a gas station or a self-serve kind of place. She didn't have the money to go to any kind of restaurant, even the diner.

Hell, she could barely afford to keep Rory clothed and in diapers. None of the other inn employees, not even Sookie, knew that Mia saved dinner leftovers for Lorelai.

Too late Sookie remembered her friend's predicament.

"I thought… maybe if you knew how good the coffee was, it would make you want to go to his diner. I mean, I've seen the way you look at him every time we see him around town. I _know_ you're interested in him."

"Thanks, Sookie," Lorelai tried to smile and took another sip of her coffee. "It's okay."

Lorelai kept the cup, though, carrying it with her from room to room as she did turn-down service and cleaned rooms. Even after the coffee had turned cold and tepid, she still took sips of it.

One day, she decided, when she and Rory were in a better place financially, she would buy herself a cup of Luke's coffee. She tried to tell herself she made this decision because the coffee was so good, but she couldn't quite fool herself into believing it wasn't _really_ because she wanted an excuse to talk to Luke Danes.


	4. The Hip Thing to Do

"You _have_ to come to the town meeting with me tonight." Sookie shoves a dark chocolate chip cookie with salted caramel drizzle into Lorelai's hands as she walks into the kitchen for her lunch break.

"I don't know, Sook, you always say that crotchety Taylor guy doesn't like children at the meetings."

Lorelai loved Sookie's stories about the hilarious mishaps that tend to take place at Stars Hollow's town meetings, but she hadn't yet attended one herself.

"Oh, c'mon, Lorelai! I bet Mia would love to keep Rory for an hour or two tonight. You can't always be such a homebody. It isn't good for you. How are you ever going to meet people that way?"

"I don't think being an eighteen year old high school dropout with a baby newcomer will inspire people to be my friends." Lorelai devoured her cookie in three bites. "These are amazing, by the way."

Lorelai was painfully aware of the fact that the graduating class of Stars Hollow High, just a month away from their freedom, were completing a life step that she was also supposed to accomplish.

Instead she was cleaning rooms and making beds as a maid, having to take breaks every few hours in order to breastfeed Rory because she couldn't afford formula—and now the new challenge of starting to wean her. She was living in a renovated garden shed that was too small to fit a crib into, so Rory slept in a wooden box on pillows instead of a mattress. She was in the process of filling out paperwork for Medicaid for Rory though she herself did not have insurance.

"Please, just this one. It's the hip thing to do in this town! And we all know you deserve a break."

Sookie cupped her hands underneath her chin and widens her eyes. Lorelai sighs, feeling torn.

"Okay, fine," Lorelai finally says. "Just this one."

Even as the words leave her mouth and Sookie hugs her, Lorelai feels her stomach drop a little. She wouldn't trade her Rory for anything, but she did wonder how her life had ended up this way.

 _I was supposed to travel the world with Ch—_ she began to think, but she cut herself off before her mind could finish his name. She didn't want to think of his laughing brown eyes and easy smile and adventurous spirit. Those things are all well and good in an eighteen year old boy, but not when that eighteen year old boy has an infant daughter that he abandons.

Now Rory was just over a year old, and they were doing fine. Not perfect, but fine. They didn't need Chris.

Despite all of Sookie's stories, Lorelai had no idea what she would be walking into as she and Sookie made their way to the town meeting. It was held in a dance studio where the sign read ' _Miss Patty's School of Ballet_ '.

That was one of the few names Lorelai recognized, though she had been living in Stars Hollow for several months. Miss Patty always stopped her in the street to coo over Rory when Lorelai took her out for walks. Lorelai liked Miss Patty's generous use of costume jewelry and bright outfits.

And in her costume jewels and bright prints, Miss Patty stood behind a podium, banging it with a gavel and calling the town meeting to order.

"This better be a good meeting," Sookie whispered more to herself than to Lorelai as a man with graying hair came to the podium.

"Is that the mayor? I thought he owned the grocery store," Lorelai whispered to Sookie.

"What, Taylor? God, no! He wishes he were mayor. He's town selectman. He runs all the town meetings."

"Sookie, are you and your friend done or should I pass out refreshments to hold us over until your very important conversation is complete?"

Sookie rolled her eyes at Taylor. "Sorry, Taylor. Lorelai's new. She doesn't know how the town meetings work."

"Well, she's got eyes, she can watch," Taylor chided.

"But what if I were blind?" Lorelai asked before she could stop herself. A lot of people turned in their seats to look at Lorelai, but that didn't discourage her in the least bit.

"Excuse me?" Taylor asked.

"What if I were blind? Then I wouldn't be able to watch and learn what a town meeting is like."

"Then I suppose you could have listened."

"And if I were deaf, too? Had a whole Hellen Keller thing going on?"

"Well, then, let's all hope Sookie learned some ways to communicate with the blind and deaf at that fancy culinary school she went to. Are we done now, girls?"

Sookie, giggling in the seat beside Lorelai, replied, "Maybe, Taylor. We'll see. Go ahead, bang your gavel at us."

Turning a little red in the face, Taylor did just that.

"Alright now that Sookie and…Lorelai, was it? Well, now that they have gotten all their chatter out of their systems, I would like to open the floor to a misrepresentation issue we have currently going on in town. As we all know, we have a relatively new business in town that has been open for about a year. Now, one would think that is plenty of time to select and order a business sign—"

Taylor was cut off by a young man in plaid with a backwards baseball cap. Luke shot out of his seat. He had been sitting near the back, but now he was walking up the aisle between the chairs.

"Taylor! I already told you I'm not getting rid of my father's sign on the diner!"

"Luke, that sign reads 'William's Hardware'. Is your name William?"

"What kind of stupid question is that?! You know my name, Taylor!"

Sookie leaned over to Lorelai, using the opportunity to whisper to Lorelai again. "This is what makes the meetings so great. These two are always going at it."

Lorelai smiled, but her eyes were fixed at the two men at the front of the room.

"Yes, and your name is _Luke_ Danes, not _William_ Danes. Do you run a hardware store?"

"No, Taylor, you and everyone else in this town know that I turned the hardware store into a diner."

Suddenly Taylor used his gavel to point out into the crowd of townspeople, right at Lorelai.

" _She_ may not know that. Sookie said she was new to town. The fact that your diner still has your father's sign on it could be confusing for Lorelai here."

Luke glared at Taylor before turning toward the crowd.

"You're Lorelai?" He asked, motioning to her with his head.

"Yes," she answered.

"Tell me if this concept is too much for you, because Taylor obviously thinks you're thick in the head. Do you understand that my father's name was William Danes?" Luke paused for Lorelai to answer.

"Yes."

"Do you understand that my father, named William Danes, ran a hardware store?"

"Yes."

"Do you understand that my father died a little over a year ago, so there is no way that the William Danes in question could still be running a hardware store?"

"Yes. Sorry about your dad."

"It's okay. Do you understand that I, Luke Danes, inherited my father's hardware store and chose to convert it into a diner?"

"Yes."

"Does the fact that the building, which has a sign that says 'Williams Hardware', is actually a diner confuse you at all?"

"No."

Luke raised his arms and turned to Taylor.

"See? The one new resident we've had in years is not at all confused by the fact that my diner still has my father's sign on it. I'm not getting rid of the sign."

Luke turned to walk back down the aisle.

"Well, what if we get more new residents?"

"Let's all hope they're deaf and blind, and then it won't even matter to them what sign hangs on what building!" Luke said, echoing Lorelai's words as he left the dance studio.

A huge smile was on Lorelai's face as she turned her attention from the retreating Luke to the now entirely flustered Taylor. Everyone was talking now, so that no one was paying attention as Taylor tried to bring the meeting back to order.

"I _like_ town meetings!" Lorelai said to Sookie, squeezing her hand.

* * *

 **A/N:** Okay, guys, I don't like to do author's notes too often, but I just want to let y'all know what timeline I'm going with here. As pretty much every GG fan knows, the timelines in the show are incredibly ambiguous. So, for this story's sake, Lorelai is 18 and recently moved to Stars Hollow. Rory is a little over a year old. I decided this after looking at Lorelai and Rory's birthdays and how they fall on the calendar. I've chosen to make Luke roughly 21, as I have found no basis for his age anywhere, so if anyone does have an idea of Luke's age in relation to Lorelai, please let me know! Sorry for this long note. I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Reviews are always, always appreciated :)


	5. You've Been Kirked

Lorelai was extremely grateful that Rory, just over a year old, had no concept of time or holidays. She couldn't know that Christmas was fast approaching, or that she wouldn't be getting any present even though her mother desperately wanted to give her the world.

Instead, Lorelai had bundled Rory snuggly in a snowsuit, snow boots, hat, mittens, and scarf and brought her to the town square to play. At least in the center of town, Rory could look at all the Christmas decorations and play in the snow.

The drifts were hard for her little legs to navigate, so she sat happily in a drift. Lorelai watched as she pushed her hand into it, her arm disappearing up to the elbow.

"Snow, Mama. Snow!" Rory kept telling Lorelai.

"Yeah, Rory! Snow! Mama loves snow."

Rory takes a handful of snow and tosses it up in the air over her head. "I love snow!"

Even though she was so young, Rory already spoke in full sentences. There were few words she could not pronounce properly. It astounded everyone who spoke to the little girl and it made Lorelai glow with pride.

"Excuse me, miss," a voice behind Lorelai drew her attention away from watching Rory play in the snow. There was a young man with short brown hair standing behind her.

"Yes?" Lorelai said politely. She was trying to figure out why the young man looked familiar, though she was certain she had never spoken to him.

"You are Lorelai Gilmore, correct?" He read the name off of a clipboard in his gloved hand.

"That's me. Who's asking?"

"Oh, sorry, I'm Kirk. Taylor asked me to update the town census, as you and your child have been here for a few months and are expected to be long-term residents of Stars Hollow."

"Why would you have to update the census for two people?" Lorelai asked. It wasn't like she and Rory were making a huge change in population.

"Because Taylor asked me to. I tried to come by your place at the Independence Inn, but Mia shooed me off. She said there was not soliciting allowed on the property, and if I wanted to talk to you I needed to buy something, but—"

Lorelai reached down and pulled Rory into her lap, much to the little girl's protests, and interrupted Kirk.

"I'm sorry, did you say you came to the _inn_?"

"Well, yeah, that's where you live. I mean, it's not an official address, since it's an unmarked building on the Independence Inn property, but Taylor said that's where you and your child live. Her name is…Mory, right? We already got one of those in town."

"Rory. Her name is Rory," Lorelai said firmly. Kirk picked up a pencil and began scribbling on the paper on his clipboard.

"Alright, we're off to a good start, then. There's just a few more—" Lorelai was about to cut Kirk off again when a third voice joined the conversation.

"Kirk, leave her alone."

Lorelai recognized the voice. The hair on the back of her neck stood up and her heart picked up its pace as she turned to see Luke.

"But, Luke, Taylor sent me to—" Luke shifted the weight of the groceries he was carrying so that he could use a hand to wave Kirk off.

"I know what Taylor sent you to do. I was just at the market. What he asked you to do is ridiculous."

"It's for official town documents!"

"You're not even employed by the town, Kirk! You can't invade people's privacy this way! She'll have to answer all of those stupid questions if she buys property here or when her kid is in school. She doesn't have to answer them while she's sitting on a park bench minding her own business."

Lorelai bounced Rory on her lap as she watched the exchange before her. Usually she wasn't one for a man coming in and acting like he needed to protect her, but for some reason she didn't mind Luke's intervention.

"Taylor's going to be mad at me, Luke," Kirk told him, his facial expression genuinely worried.

"Tell him he can come yell at me, then. It's cathartic for him anyway."

Kirk looked hopeless at Luke for a moment. Lorelai watched as Luke raised his eyebrows at Kirk, the rest of his expression unchanging.

And then a great thing happened. Kirk actually _stomped his foot_ , sending a little flurry of snow up from the movement. Then he turned around and huffed across the square.

"Thanks for that," Lorelai told Luke with a smile. It was the first time she had spoken to him since the town meeting, which he himself had left in a huff.

"You were being Kirked. You're new, so you aren't used to it. But you're gonna have to get used to it if you're going to stay here."

"He's like that a lot?" She asked, wanting to keep the conversation going.

"Been that way his whole life. He's always willing to do Taylor's bidding to boot. I'd limit contact if I were you."

"Will do," Lorelai called after Luke. He had already turned away, walking back toward his diner.

But without turning, he lifted his hand to wave to Lorelai.


	6. Celebrating

When Lorelai left her parents' house (her mother would insist she 'ran away', but Lorelai was positive that wasn't the right term since she _was_ eighteen when she left), she made sure to leave behind a note for them. And in that note, she had promised to call on holidays and their birthdays, and even _her_ birthday and Rory's birthday.

She had called for Thanksgiving. She called for Christmas. And six days later, on New Year's Eve.

On New Year's Eve, Lorelai's mother, the one and only Emily Gilmore, dropped the bomb that Lorelai was certain she'd been sitting on for quite some time:

"Christopher is going to California. He's joining in on a start-up company, getting in on this Internet craze before it hits. He's likely to be making a fortune off of it."

In Emily's voice, Lorelai heard all the things her mother meant but did not say. _You're an idiot for not marrying him. You and Rory both would be better off if you went to California with him. Why do you insist on making everything impossible? You've always been impossible._

Lorelai knew her mother didn't hear the question raging through her head at the news: _How can he be so okay with leaving Rory?_

Because there was nothing Lorelai had ever loved more than Rory, and it depressed her beyond measure that Rory meant nothing to her father.

While Rory slept soundly in their garden shed home, all wrapped up in a blanket Mia crocheted for her, Lorelai sat close by the door outside. She had brought one of the Inn's lawn chairs over to the shed and bundled herself in her coat and scarf, her gloves and a wool hat. It had snowed earlier that day, but she didn't mind.

Lorelai loved the snow, and besides, she was plenty warm thanks to the champagne she was drinking while she waited for the clock to hit midnight. She had heard from Sookie that the town would light fireworks at midnight. Rory was too little to stay up, and she slept like a rock—Lorelai was certain Rory would sleep through any noise that went on tonight.

So Lorelai decided to sit up and watch the fireworks alone.

Or at least, she had _planned_ to be alone, until she heard a voice behind her.

"Are you old enough to be drinking that?"

The snow had muffled his footsteps, and Lorelai had been preoccupied watching the patchwork of clouds and stars while waiting for the fireworks. She hadn't had any clue that Luke was walking towards the Inn.

"You run a diner, not a police department. Besides, I'm old enough in Europe. Plus I have a kid. That should give anyone a free pass to drink sometimes."

Lorelai pulled her eyes away from the sky and tipped her head back to look at Luke. "What are you doing here anyway?"

"Mia asked me to come catch a raccoon that's been in the Inn," Luke said plainly. Lorelai wondered why he didn't have anywhere better to be on New Year's Eve night.

"Oh, yeah," Lorelai said instead of asking him. "He's a messy little guy. Turns over all the trashcans at night. I have to clean it up every morning. I named him Sherman."

"You _named_ it?" Luke asked, almost sounding incredulous. He was honestly awed by this young girl who had come in to Stars Hollow. Who names raccoons?

"Yeah, I saw him one morning. He looks like a Sherman. He's just a baby. Don't hurt him."

"I didn't plan on it. I'm just going to catch him and take him out away from town."

Lorelai nodded and took another pull of her champagne.

"But why at night?" She asked, turning back to Luke.

"Raccoons are nocturnal."

"Oh, right, right. You better go get him, then."

Luke looked at Lorelai for a few moments, but she had turned her attention back to the sky. When Luke sighed, his breath came out in a thick puff. After a few seconds, he continued his walk to the Inn, but he didn't go inside.

Instead he scraped a thin layer of snow off of another lawn chair he found beside the back door. He took it back to Lorelai's shed, plopping it down in the snow beside her own.

"Oh, you're back. What are you doing?" Lorelai asked. Even in the moonlight, her eyes were bright blue and Luke could see the red blooming across her cheeks from the cold.

"If you're gonna sit outside in the snow and drink on New Year's, you probably shouldn't do it alone. Especially if you aren't even twenty-one."

"What about Sherman?"

"I'm sure Sherman'll still be here next year." That made Lorelai giggle.

"How long until it's next year?"

"About five minutes."

"Do you want some of this?" Lorelai asked, holding the champagne bottle towards him. Luke lifted a hand.

"I'm good."

"You just told me that I shouldn't be drinking alone."

"I'm not big on champagne."

"But it's New Year's. We're supposed to be celebrating. You drink champagne when you're celebrating."

Lorelai held the bottle out towards him, inching it closer to his face when Luke tried to pull away.

Luke sighed again, releasing another puff of breath, and took the bottle from Lorelai. He didn't much like the bubbly liquid, but he took a swallow anyway. Before that moment, he hadn't ever even had champagne, but he'd been right about it—he definitely _wasn't_ big on it.

"So. Celebrating New Year's, huh?"

"And the wonderful, huge, life-changing career move my baby's father is making, noticeably in the exact opposite direction of where his child is."

Luke scrunched his brow while Lorelai reached for her champagne. She took a big gulp before lodging the bottle into the snow. There was enough on the ground that it held the bottle upright.

"He's moving to California to get in on some Internet start-up company. Y'know, because that's more important than having a _child_."

Luke didn't know what to say, so he chose to pick at a loose thread on his fingerless gloves instead.

"But mostly, y'know, the New Year. It's a happier thing to celebrate at least."

"He sounds like a jerk," Luke said after such a long gap that Lorelai almost forgot what they had been talking about. She had turned back to the sky, waiting again for the fireworks. All the champagne she had drank was making it feel like minutes were taking hours.

"Yeah, he can be. He wasn't before, but I don't know, I guess fatherhood brought out the best in him."

"Has he seen her much? I mean, your baby, um…"

"Rory," Lorelai filled in for him. "Her name's Rory. He saw her the day she was born, and a couple of times after that. She's over a year old now."

"Nobody needs dads like that anyway."

"Yeah, not everyone is lucky enough to have a dad who leaves them a hardware store they can turn into a diner."

Lorelai turned her head back to the sky once again. This time, Luke followed her lead, and it was a good thing he did. Just seconds later the fireworks started to explode across the sky.

The two sat in silence, watching different colors bleed across the sky. Neither of them spoke until the last of the fireworks faded from the sky.

"It's officially 1986 now,'' Luke pointed out. Lorelai nodded her head in response.

"Make a New Year's revolution with me, Luke Danes."

"You mean a resolution?"

"Yeah, that word," Lorelai said, laughing at her own mistake.

"What kind of resolution?"

"I don't care, just make one. I'm pretty sure there's an unwritten rule somewhere that if you spend New Year's with someone who is more or less a stranger that you have to make a resolution with them."

Luke couldn't help but smile at how persuasive she could be.

"Well, what is yours going to be?"

"I can't tell you, because when I forget about it in February and don't follow through with it, I'll feel really crappy because you'll know I didn't keep my New Year's resolution."

"Then don't tell me."

"I'm not going to."

Lorelai's resolution was to forget Christopher for once and for all—he had already shown that he had no problem forgetting herself and Rory.

Luke's resolution was to spend more time with Lorelai Gilmore.

But neither of them told the other these things, of course.


	7. It's Nothing, He Says

As badly as her mother treated maids, Lorelai honestly would have killed to have the wages her mother doled out to maids. Even though she worked every day of the week and insisted on only ever talking half days—never full days—off, Lorelai knew her paychecks would never come close. The severance package her mother supplied alone would have kept herself and Rory golden for months.

Unfortunately for Lorelai, Mia didn't come from old money and she didn't marry into old money, so she was stuck with minimum wage paychecks. But she really didn't mind that much, especially since she and Rory ate all of their meals at the Inn and the fact that she lived in a shed meant she didn't have to pay rent.

Besides, she liked living in the shed. She really did. She liked the big, old windows with their warped glass. She didn't mind that she had to use old sheets to section off the bathroom from the rest of the shed, as there were no doors. Or walls, really. The whole floor plan was very open. And she really didn't mind doing her laundry by hand (even the lone laundromat in Stars Hollow was too expensive) and having to hang it outside to dry.

Rory had been far too young to remember the comforts of living with Lorelai's parents, so there was no harm, no foul. This was the life she knew, and Lorelai did her best to make sure she was happy.

It was hard, though, to keep a one year old happy when spring rains came as soon as February ended and the roof started to leak days into the dreary, days-long downpour. Sookie gave Lorelai her least-favorite pots and pans from the kitchen to place strategically on the floor, but it was only a means to an end.

" _Drip drip drip_ in pans makes my head hurt, Mama," Rory told Lorelai, hands over her ears, on the fifth day of rain. Lorelai sighed and reached under their bed—the two shared, even though it was hardly bigger than a cot—and found the tiny purple rain boots Miss Patty had insisted Rory must have. She and Babette had found them while shopping, and both had decided they were too fabulous _not_ to buy, especially when they knew a little girl just the right size for them.

"How about _drip drip drip_ on an umbrella? Would that be better than in a pan?" Lorelai asked, pulling the rain boots over Rory's sock-clad feet. Rory nodded, her big blue eyes lighting up.

"Then let's go to the library," Lorelai suggested. "I bet there's no _drip drip drip_ in pans there." She may have been only one, but the library was Rory's favorite place. She was always amazed by all of the books. Rory's favorite thing was to lay in a nest of pillows in the children's section, big headphones taking up most of her head while she listened to books on tape.

Rory even knew which buttons to push. She really only needed Lorelai to switch the tape for her and find the book that matched the tape.

Lorelai liked it because it gave her ample time to work on her GED homework. Stars Hollow High offered GED work that could be self-paced and done at home, which was perfect for Lorelai. Her other New Year's resolution, which she had also kept from Luke, was to get her GED. If she was able to keep her pace, she hoped to be done before the summer.

While Rory ran around the pans she had just claimed gave her a headache, Lorelai pulled on boots of her own and packed their backpack with snacks for both of them and her workbooks. She wrangled Rory into her winter coat, because it was still cold out despite the humidity from the rain.

"Liberry, liberry!" Rory sang as she jumped over, not in, puddles. She couldn't properly say the word 'library', which Lorelai found adorable. Lorelai had to walk quickly to keep Rory under the cover of their umbrella while she hopped along.

"Not so fast, Rory," Lorelai told her once they had reached the street. "You have to hold Mama's hand in the streets, remember?"

Rory stopped just short of the curb and obediently held up a hand, waiting for Lorelai to take it. Lorelai shook her head, smiling to herself. If she and Rory lived anywhere else than Stars Hollow with its nonexistent traffic, she was sure Rory would have been ran over by now.

Unbeknownst to Rory, Lorelai had a plan. You see, because of the _drip drip drip_ , Rory hadn't slept well in days. She had already been fed dinner, and the library in Stars Hollow tended to stay open pretty late for a library. Lorelai was hoping that if they stayed long enough, Rory would fall asleep at the library.

Four and a half hours later, Lorelai's plan worked. When she checked on Rory after finishing a particularly difficult science unit, she found the little girl curled up in the pillows with the headphones askew on her head.

Lorelai carefully untangled Rory and lifted her into her arms. It had finally stopped raining, and Lorelai was glad she wouldn't have to try to hold the umbrella open at the same time that she carried Rory.

Thanks to the twinkle lights wrapped around practically every tree in town, the night wasn't too dark despite the thick clouds still covering the sky. The combined weight of the backpack and Rory was heavy, though, so Lorelai tried her best to walk quickly home.

Her preferred route was one that took her in front of Luke's Diner. She liked the glimpses of him that she got from the storefront windows. She also liked his new sign, which was remarkably smaller than the one that still read 'William's Hardware'. This one was almost inconspicuous, hung low and shaped like a yellow coffee mug; a tongue-in-cheek response to Taylor Doosey's protests.

Every time she had walked in front of the diner before, Luke had been inside working. This time, though, as she approached the diner she saw him exit the front door with both hands carrying heaping bags of garbage.

"Finally taking care of your hoarding problem or something?" Lorelai quipped as the two met on the sidewalk. She shifted Rory's sleeping weight, trying to get a more comfortable position for her arms.

"Kind of. It's not exactly fun to take the trash out in the rain." Lorelai nodded, still struggling to find a balance between Rory in her arms, the backpack on her back, and the umbrella that was quickly falling from her grasp.

Luke's brow furrowed under his backwards baseball cap. "Do you need some help with all that?"

If anyone else had asked, Lorelai probably would have stubbornly refused. But instead she just nodded quietly.

"Okay, wait here. I'll be right back." Luke walked quickly to a dumpster located about halfway between his diner and Taylor's grocery store. When he got back to Lorelai, Luke moved to take the backpack from her shoulders, but he stopped short.

"Will she wake up?" He asked in a whisper.

"No," Lorelai told him. "Once she's out, she's out for good, thank God."

Still, Luke was careful as he lifted the straps and waited for Lorelai to slide her arms out from under them.

Luke walked along side Lorelai, one hand holding onto her backpack and the umbrella, the other shoved in his pocket.

"Is that too heavy?" Lorelai asked, nodding towards the backpack. She had brought all of her books, since she wasn't sure how long it would take Rory to fall asleep.

"You're the one carrying an actual human being, and you're asking me if the backpack is too heavy?"

"Yeah, Rory weighs like twenty pounds, tops."

"I'm pretty sure this backpack doesn't weigh anything near twenty pounds."

"Really? Because I know for a fact that backpack has four textbooks, hours of lost sleep, probably a crushed dream or two, and definitely pounds of dust judging from the smell of the textbooks weighing it down."

"Textbooks? Why do you have textbooks?"

Lorelai lifted Rory a little higher. Since she was asleep, she wasn't holding on to her mother at all, and her weight kept slipping in Lorelai's arms.

"I'm getting my GED," Lorelai told him. "Taking care of a baby made it kind of hard to finish school. Plus I got kicked out once they realized I was pregnant and not fat."

"You got kicked out of school for being pregnant?"

"Private schools, man." Lorelai said with a shrug. She looked over at Luke as they walked. Lorelai hadn't noticed until then that his eyes were blue.

Without the backpack, she had slowed her pace quite a bit, and the two were strolling at a leisurely pace through town. Luke walked carefully, leading a path around puddles so Lorelai wouldn't have to walk through them.

"You know, in public school, they would have just let you stick her in a nursery they provided."

Lorelai blew her breath. "Public school. My mother would have had a brain aneurysm just at the thought."

"So it was better to just let you get kicked out?"

"Well, I did have a baby to take care of since I just couldn't resist going and getting myself knocked up," Lorelai told him, mocking her mother's voice. She was sure the impression went over Luke's head, since he had the good fortune of never meeting Emily Gilmore, but he chuckled at it all the same.

Stars Hollow was not a terribly big town by anyone's definition, so it didn't take long for the three of them to reach the garden shed.

"Oh, shoot," Lorelai said once they reached the front door. "My keys are in the backpack, in that little front pocket. Can you get them for me?"

"Oh, yeah, sure." She smiled as Luke fumbled a little with getting the key out. Lorelai nodded at Rory in her arms when Luke tried to hand her the key and Luke smiled sheepishly before unlocking the door for her.

"Thanks, Luke Danes," Lorelai said, walking through the front door as he held it open. She nodded again, this time to signal for Luke to follow her inside.

"No problem," Luke said with a shrug. "Uh, why are there dishes all over your floor?"

"I have a wonderfully aerated roof."

"Your roof leaks? Does Mia know about that?"

Lorelai laid Rory carefully on the bed before turning to take the backpack and umbrella from Luke.

"Um, no. Fixing a roof kind of costs money…which I don't really have."

"I bet I could fix it." Luke had his head tipped upward, trying to inspect the damage from looking at the ceiling. He wasn't paying attention to her at all, which Lorelai was thankful for. Her face was burning with shame. She had forgotten about the roof and the overall shabbiness of her little shed home.

"Oh, no, I couldn't ask you to do that."

"You're not asking, I'm offering." Luke was still staring up at the ceiling, his hands on his hips. "It's amazing you didn't have any problems with it during the winter."

"You would fix my roof? You hardly even know me."

"You have a baby," Luke said plainly. "And it's not like I don't have the tools—"

Luke didn't get to finish wherever he was going with that, because Lorelai had wrapped her arms around his waist. She knew it was impulsive, but she couldn't help herself. She had been completely overtaken with gratitude.

"Thank you," she said quietly. "Really, really thank you."

"It's nothing," Luke said. He was so taken aback that it took a few moments for him to respond, but eventually Luke was able to move his arms to hug Lorelai back.


	8. A Real Handy Man

In one afternoon's time, Luke patched every hole in Lorelai's roof while Lorelai and Rory sat on a blanket in the grass. He had insisted that even though they were minor repairs, the two had to be out of the shed.

As consolation for essentially kicking Lorelai out of her own house for an afternoon, Luke had brought her a cup of coffee from the diner.

"Sookie told me you like coffee," he had said, the picture of innocence as he held it out to her.

Lorelai tried to ignore the heat the flooded her cheeks at his words. She almost asked him how Sookie could know that he would be seeing her soon to fix the roof, but then she remembered where they lived.

Everyone knew everything about everyone in Stars Hollow.

"I don't know how much I trust the structure of this thing. It's been here my whole life."

"Yeah, and you're so old," Lorelai had teased with an eye roll.

"Old enough to legally drink champagne if I want to."

He refused to take any kind of payment, not that Lorelai had much to offer anyway.

Lorelai was in the middle of teaching Rory to play patty-cake when Luke climbed down from the roof.

"Are you aware your windows don't have locks on them?"

"I'm sorry, are you implying this town has a crime rate that warrants having locks on them?" Lorelai was waiting for Rory to figure out that she was supposed to clap her hands to her outstretched ones.

"You've met Kirk. Not everyone who lives here is exactly normal."

"Now are you implying Kirk would rob me?" Lorelai looked over at Luke with a bemused expression.

"Well, maybe not Kirk per se…"

"If it makes you feel better and feeds your ego to help the town damsel in distress, I _guess_ you can put locks on my windows."

"That's not why I fixed your roof," Luke said, flustered and red-faced. Lorelai beamed up at him.

"I know it's not. So you just have window locks lying around, too? Like you did the tiles to patch the roof?"

"The diner did used to be a hardware store." Lorelai had scooted over on the blanket by this point and patted it until Luke sat down beside her. It took him so long to notice Lorelai's cue that Rory had started to mimic her mother, patting the blanket with her tiny hand.

"Sit sit sit!" Rory commanded him in her tiny voice.

"Why'd you keep all of the old stock?"

"It would be kind of hard to sell hardware supplies and burgers at the same time."

Lorelai picked Rory up. She wasn't very big for a one year old, and Lorelai often worried it was because of their diet and living arrangement. She held Rory out to Luke. When Luke shook his head, Lorelai pressed the baby into his hands.

"I don't know what to do with kids. I have a nephew that I've only seen once." Luke held Rory awkwardly in the air. Rory reached one hand forward, trying to grasp Luke's baseball cap.

"You have a nephew?"

"Yeah, my little sister's kid. Liz lives in New York. Her kid's name is Jess, he's about the same age as Rory."

Since Luke would not let Rory take the hat off of his head, Rory had to settle for patting his cheeks and his nose.

"Luuuu!" Rory crooned, and then she giggled. She couldn't quite say 'Luke'—the _k_ in his name seemed to elude her. In a similar fashion, she called Sookie _Soo_. "Luuuuuu!"

Lorelai smiled as she watched Rory pat Luke's face. Since Rory was only one, she did tire easily of things and she was soon asking Luke to put her down. As soon as her little bare feet touched the ground, she was off, running towards the patch of wildflowers that grew beside the shed.

"So I can put locks on your windows?"

"Would it keep you up at night if I didn't let you?"

"You live beside an Inn! Inns are for people in transit! You don't know what these people are like!"

Lorelai almost laughed at his concern, but she managed to hold back.

"I've been inside every person's room who stays at the Inn," she pointed out.

"Do you think murderers just leave their murdering gear lying out?"

"No, I bet they keep it secreted away behind their diner facades."

Luke cut his eyes at Lorelai in a mock glare, but there was a small smile on his face.

"Ha. You're a real funny girl, Lorelai Gilmore."

Lorelai smiled sweetly at him.

"And you're a real handy man, Luke Danes. _Yes_ , you can put locks on my windows."


	9. A Class All Her Own

The first time Lorelai actually set foot in the diner was also her GED graduation day: June 16th, 1986.

"Look!" Lorelai said, barreling through the front door. It was around eleven in the morning, and for once the diner was empty. "Look what I got today!"

Luke had been wiping down tables, not expecting anyone to come in for a while. There was usually a solid lull between the breakfast and lunch rushes.

"Look at what?" Luke asked, turning in surprise just as Lorelai came to a stop in front of him and held out the certificate.

"You graduated, what? Three or four years ago? Surely your memory hasn't gone that fast and you remember what a diploma looks like."

Luke threw his rag onto the table he'd been completed and took the certificate from Lorelai's hands. Lorelai was so excited that she was practically bouncing in place.

"You finished your GED courses? You're all done?"

"Yes!" She shouted, throwing her arms around his waist. One of Luke's arms came to rest around Lorelai's shoulders while his other hand held on to the certificate.

"And I'm extra special because I am the _only_ student in this graduating class," Lorelai told him, her voice muffled a little against the flannel of his shirt.

Once Lorelai let go of him and Luke had handed the certificate back to her, he moved to behind the counter. Lorelai watched as he took a sprinkled pink donut out from under a glass tray, wrapping it in thin white paper.

"Here," he told Lorelai, walking back to her and holding the donut out. "I feel like you should get cake or something, y'know, to celebrate. But I don't have any cake, all I have are donuts…"

Luke realized he was rambling when he saw the smirk spread across Lorelai's face, so he let his sentence fade off.

"You know, you always come off as a grumpy old man trapped in a twenty-something year old's body, but you're really a big, sweet, softy, Luke."

"Just eat your donut."

"I will. And thanks, for the celebratory donut. I have to get back to the inn. Mia was babysitting Rory so I could take the exit exam."

As she walked back to the Independence Inn, there was a smile on Lorelai's face when she took the first bite out of her donut. Lorelai ate exactly half of the donut and wrapped the other half back up to save for Rory…even though Rory's method of eating donuts consisted of nibbling off all of the icing and leaving the rest.

When Rory got back to the inn, she found Rory and Mia in the front sitting room, the furniture pushed out of the way and Rory dancing across the floor to a record Mia had put on.

"Hi, baby!" Lorelai handed her certificate and half-eaten donut to Mia so she could take Rory's tiny hands and join in on the dance.

"So you did it, huh?" Mia asked, a big smile on her face. She did not have children of her own, but she liked to think of Lorelai and Rory as her own family.

"I'm officially the proud owner of a high school diploma equivalent piece of paper," Lorelai told her. She picked Rory up and swung her around, eliciting wild giggles from the little girl.

"Hear that, Ror? Mama's _almost_ a high school graduate. We're moving up in the world!"


	10. Lorelai Gilmore

"So tell me how you did it," Lorelai said to Luke.

She had thought it would be harder to convince Luke to come to the Inn and eat dinner with her so she could pepper him with questions about bank loans, but amazingly it only took two days of stopping by the diner to bug him.

"How did I do what?" Luke asked. Outwardly, he seemed very preoccupied with his bowl of the clam chowder Sookie had made for the dinner special.

Honestly, his attention was half on Sookie's chowder and half on Lorelai. She had changed out of her maid's uniform before Luke got there, but her hair was still in the French braid she wore for work. Some curly wisps had started to fall out of the braid to frame her face, and somehow it drew attention to the blue of her eyes.

They weren't eating in the dining room, but rather the little sitting room of the Inn, with Rory sitting on the floor happily scribbling on loose pieces of construction paper.

After her GED diploma was securely in her hands—and then framed on her bedroom wall—Lorelai set herself a new goal: Get and _actual_ house for herself and Rory. Not that she didn't love living at the Inn and that she wasn't endlessly grateful to Mia. But Rory was going to be two soon, and the bigger she got, the smaller the garden shed was sure to become.

She was only nineteen—her birthday had been a few months prior to her GED graduation. Lorelai had been a little sad she hadn't been able to complete the program at eighteen, as had been her original goal, but she was happy she got it done nonetheless.

"How did you convince the bank to give you a loan at a ridiculously young age? I mean, how old were you when you got it?" Luke had mentioned to Lorelai that, in order to convert the hardware store into a diner, he had needed a bank loan.

"Twenty," Luke said before shoveling a huge spoonful of chowder into his mouth.

"Nineteen, twenty. That's not that much of a difference."

"Yeah, but I also know the owner of the bank."

"Well, yeah, of course you do. A scale model of this town could easily be one by one, in _inches_."

"But what I mean is, no sensible bank would give anyone that young with no credit a loan unless they used to deliver papers for the owner on their bike route, which I did."

There was a significant pause while Lorelai looked him dead in the eyes and smirked. "Now _that_ is adorable."

Luke ignored the blush that came up in his cheeks at her taunt. "Well, and on top of that, my father had just died, so I think Reggie would have felt like a jerk for denying me."

"So what you're saying is I need to teach Rory to ride a bike, get her a bike route, make sure this Reggie is on it, _then_ convince Reggie I have aged nearly seventeen years very rapidly, and convince him my father recently died, and the bank loan will be mine?"

Luke was quiet for a long moment, slowly shaking his head while Lorelai smiled at him. Not for the first time, he was wondering why, exactly, he liked to spend time with this loud and off-kilter girl.

"If you just talk to him for long enough, you could probably just confuse him to the point of giving you anything you want. He's pretty old, and hard of hearing."

Lorelai bent over to rummage through her bag. When she sat back up, a large folder was in her hands.

"Is that a trapper keeper?" Luke asked, his voice tinged with a chuckle. "I haven't seen one of those in a while."

"Mock all you want. _You_ already have your bank loan, but some of us who do not have to keep up with a lot of paper work."

Luke watched while she rummaged through it. He noticed she had painted her nails a deep, ocean-blue. Lorelai handed him a newspaper clipping from a classified ad.

"This is probably a really stupid question, but do you know where this is?"

While she made jokes about the miniscule size of Stars Hollow, Luke knew Lorelai didn't know a lot of places in town. More than once since the first time she stopped into the diner, Lorelai had come by to ask Luke for directions.

She always wrote down everything Luke said with a brightly colored gel pen on one of his napkins.

Luke lifted the clipping closer to his face to examine the grainy black and white photo.

"Oh, yeah. This is next door to Babette's house." Just then, Luke felt a tiny hand pat against the fabric of his jeans. Absentmindedly, he handed the clipping back to Lorelai while tipping his head down to look at Rory.

"For you!" Rory told him brightly, a piece of paper in her outstretched hand. "For Luuuu!"

"Oh, thank you," Luke said as he examined the picture. He wouldn't admit it, but even though he often felt unsure of himself around the little girl, it kind of made him feel good when she showed her approval of him.

"What is it?" He asked, turning the paper around in his hands. His question was met with a peal of laughter from Rory before she went back to her paper and crayons.

Luke raised his eyebrows at Lorelai, but she simply shrugged.

"Could you show me where this is?" Lorelai asked, waving the clipping around.

"Sure, when?"

"Can we go now?" Her face was bright with excitement, and Luke found it impossible to say no.

"Uh, yeah. But I drove here, and I don't exactly have a car seat…"

"A scale model of this place would be—"

"One by one in inches, I know, I know. We can walk there, easy."

In late August, they had plenty of daylight left to walk by. Lorelai quickly picked up Rory's mess and then lifted the little girl into her arms.

Luke led them the opposite way than Lorelai expected, away from the town.

"Are you finally going to show me where you hide your murdering equipment?" She asked as Luke held back a tree branch for her to walk under.

"I can't reveal secrets like that. We're taking a shortcut."

"A murder shortcut."

Luke rolled his eyes and walked forward. Lorelai wouldn't have guessed that the house was not far from the Inn at all, if you didn't mind walking through a small forest. The trees and bushes were thick and close together.

More than once Lorelai held Rory out to Luke, not trusting her footing while holding the baby to get over some log or through some shrubbery. Each time Luke went a little rigid, nervous to have Rory in his arms. And each time, Rory made a go for his baseball hat, trying her best to get it turned around on his head. Luke had to right it each time he handed Rory back to Lorelai.

It really wasn't a long walk, and soon the trio broke through the tree line to stand in the front yard of the house.

"Oh," Lorelai said, setting a squirming Rory down to play in the grass. "It looks a lot nicer when it's not in newsprint, huh?"

"It's a good house," Luke told her. "It's not very old, it went up when I was in middle school. This used to just be an empty lot we played baseball in."

Two stories and blue, with a big white porch. It was a pretty house. Luke was surprised it was on the market at all—usually desirable property in Stars Hollow was snatched up quickly, sometimes even before a _For Sale_ sign made it into the ground.

Luke hung back near Rory while Lorelai moved forward to look at the house. He watched as she walked up the porch steps, and he liked how the late afternoon sunlight painted her porcelain skin a pale gold.

Rory chased butterflies in circles around him while Lorelai cupped her hands around her eyes and leaned in close to peak into the windows.

Eventually Lorelai made her way back to Luke, scooping Rory up and coming to stand beside him while she looked at the house some more.

After a moment, Lorelai tipped her head to look at Luke. When she did, the sunlight struck her eyes in a way that made them look like clear blue flames. Even though her face was completely serious as she looked up at him, Luke got the sudden urge to kiss her.

Instead, he swallowed heavily and bit the inside of his cheek while Lorelai said "Mark my words, Luke Danes, I'm going to own this house."

And he believed her.

Because there was something about Lorelai Gilmore, and it had been steadily pulling Luke under without his even realizing it.


	11. A Place Like Home

After patching the roof and putting locks on the windows, Luke had decided that Lorelai really needed some shelves.

"They're essential in small places," he had told her. Apparently, Luke's apartment over the diner was tiny. Not that Lorelai would know, as she had never been there. Even though Luke had been to, and inside, her little shed quite a few times by the time September rolled around.

"Hey, Luke, what was it like growing up in a place that didn't make you feel like your head was going to explode?"

Lorelai was curled up on her little couch, wearing a sweatshirt much too big for her—Luke thought it probably would have been baggy even on him—a pair of leggings, and thick wool socks. She had already put Rory to bed, but despite the fact that the bedroom was separated from the living room by only a sheet, Lorelai had a VHS tape of _Sixteen Candles_ playing.

"What do you mean?" Luke asked. He was perched on an old wooden fruit box that Rory used as a stepstool, screwing the top portion of a shelf into the wall. His feet were too big for it, really, but it was all Lorelai had.

"I mean, you liked living here when you were a kid, right?"

"Yeah."

"And you still like it now? You don't want to leave?"

"No, I don't wanna leave."

"Even though you're so grumpy about this place?"

"I am _not_ grumpy. Everyone here needs to be medicated."

"See, right there! Grumpy. I could write a whole book series full of your grumpy old man rants," Lorelai teased. Luke rolled his eyes at her but didn't respond.

"I hear that's why your last girlfriend broke up with you." Lorelai paused her movie, turning to rest her arms on the back of the couch and look at Luke.

"Who told you that?" Luke asked, turning so quickly on the box that he very nearly lost his footing.

"Sookie. Sorry. Did I upset you?" Luke's face had turned red at Lorelai's comment.

"No, it's not a big deal. She didn't want to stay in Stars Hollow and I didn't want to move. There wasn't much else to it."

"Well, at least you didn't get dumped because you were pregnant and your boyfriend couldn't handle the thought of being a father."

"Luckily I don't think I'll be in that position."

They were quiet for a while as Lorelai watched Luke work. It was warm enough inside the shed that Luke had taken off his flannel shirt, leaving him in just the plain gray t-shirt he had been wearing underneath. Sometimes, as he moved his arm, Lorelai could see the glimpse of a tattoo near his shoulder.

"I always hated Hartford," Lorelai said quietly, dropping her eyes to a loose thread on the couch.

"You're from Hartford?" Luke asked. He hadn't known that.

"Unfortunately. It's not a fun town. Everyone there is so concerned with making sure they're better than everyone else. It sucked the fun out of anything that could have been fun. All the people were snobby."

Lorelai began to play with the loose thread, pulling at it gently.

"Lucky for you that you moved to a town that thinks a squirrel sneezing is a reason to celebrate."

"Well if it's a cute squirrel and it was a cute sneeze, I can see the justification."

"Congratulations, you'll fit in fine in this whack-job town."

Lorelai gave him a big smile. The whole time they had been talking, Luke had been working. He was on the last screw in the set of shelves he was hanging.

"Hey, come watch this with me. I'll rewind it so you can see the beginning." Lorelai didn't want him to go yet. She liked having Luke around.

She liked Sookie, and Miss Patty and Babette. Of course she adored Mia. But Luke was different. Lorelai would be lying if she said she didn't feel a certain connection with Luke.

"Oh, I don't really like—" Luke started, but Lorelai cut him off.

"You don't like anything. Now come sit down."

Sheepishly, Luke put away his tools and followed Lorelai's orders. He glanced back at the curtain Rory was sleeping behind, but Lorelai reached out and grabbed his arm, forcing him to sit down.

"She's got this sleeping through the night thing on lock down, I promise. She's been doing it since she was six months old, and she'll be three next month. She's fine."

Lorelai rewound the movie all the way back to the beginning of the tape, before the previews even started.

"I thought you said you were just going to start the movie over," Luke grumbled at her.

"Oh, come on. The previews are half the fun. If you start at the previews, you can pretend you're at the movie theater."

Luke knew any arguments would fall on deaf ears, so rather he made himself comfortable on the couch beside Lorelai. The couch was small enough that their legs were more or less forced to touch.

Neither of them was lost to the effect of the shared body heat their side-by-side legs created.

Halfway through the movie, Lorelai slouched down on the couch and laid her head on Luke's shoulder. He didn't shrug her off and she smiled.

She wasn't sure if it was silly of her or not, but she was certain no place had ever felt so much like home as it did just then.


	12. Mr Princess Baseball Hat

Rory Gilmore's third birthday is the first one she would somewhat remember when she grew up.

The things that stuck out most in her memory included the cake Sookie made for her, the doll she got from Miss Patty and Babette, the fancy birthday dress her mom and Mia made, and Luke.

The cake was chocolate, with chocolate icing, and chocolate chips spelling out her name. Rory would distinctly remember three pieces, and then feeling so sick and full she wasn't sure how she was able to stand.

Her doll looked like her—soft brown waves and big blue eyes. Rory ended up naming the doll Rory. What else was she supposed to name her? She didn't know a lot of girl names, just her own, Mia, Sookie, Miss Patty, Babette, and Mama. But the doll didn't look like any of them, only herself. It only made sense to call the doll Rory.

The birthday dress was purple, Rory's favorite color at the time. It had long sleeves, but a frilly ruffled skirt made of glitter coated tulle. There were tulle bows to go with it, which Lorelai pinned to her pigtails the morning of her birthday.

As for Luke, she mostly just remembered him being there. He probably stuck out because he was so unsure of himself. He wasn't like all the women there, scooping her up for birthday hugs and kisses. He mostly hung back, even though he had brought her a My Little Pony.

And he stayed, after everyone else had gone home. She remembered that, too. He helped her mom take down the crepe paper streamers and little cardboard decorations Lorelai had put up around the shed for the small party she put together for Rory.

Rory had been sitting on the rug, playing with her new doll and pony and a few other toys. They were talking while they worked to clean up, but Rory hadn't been paying attention to that.

"Luuuu," she said instead. She actually knew how to say Luke's name, but she liked the way her mom laughed a little when she said it wrong. "Come play with me."

"Yeah, go play with the birthday girl. I can get the rest of it cleaned up."

Luke came and sat on the floor with her. He looked like he didn't know what to do, and it made Rory giggle to see him look so confused.

Rory picked up her plastic princess tiara. Luke was tall enough that Rory had to stand up to put the crown on his head, over his baseball hat.

"You can be Mr. Princess Baseball Hat, Luuu." She smiled at him while his cheeks turned red.

Her mom laughed, and she was so happy that she stooped over and kissed them both on the cheek. That only made Rory smile more, because she liked to make her mom happy. She was pretty sure birthdays couldn't be better than that day was.


	13. Different is Good

Luke was entirely different from Christopher.

Lorelai knew herself well enough to know that had she met Luke in her previous life, her life before Rory, she might have found him boring. But now, he was pretty much all she could think about.

He always used her full name and _never_ called her Lor, and that made her happy.

Maybe part of it was the age difference, but Luke seemed so much more solid than Christopher.

He was steady and strong. Lorelai had the feeling that she would never wake up to find a day that Luke had run away because a decision he had been a part of became too heavy for him.

Lorelai found Luke kind and generous in all the places she had found Christopher short-sided and self-centered.

Luke was so quiet about it, but Lorelai could tell he grew up with decent money. With the diner as successful as it already was, it wouldn't be long until he had decent money again. But he didn't show it.

He didn't wear wealth like a title, like it meant others should bow to him. It was impossible to imagine Luke driving a sports car at sixteen, or wearing perfectly pressed, expensive clothes.

And, most importantly, Luke was _there_ , very much unlike Christopher. This was a fact that wasn't lost on Lorelai nor Rory.

On Thanksgiving Day, 1986, Rory sat on Luke's lap—much to Luke's initial hesitancy—showing him the card that had arrived in the mail from Christopher. Lorelai sat on the other side of the table from them, eating her second piece of pumpkin pie Luke had made.

Luke had invited the girls to the diner for Thanksgiving dinner. Well, not exactly the diner, as they had eaten dinner in Luke's apartment above the diner.

Lorelai liked that Luke's apartment was, in a lot of ways, like her gardening shed. Small, space efficient, more or less completely open.

"This is my dad," Rory told Luke, opening the card to reveal a picture of Christopher. "Mama said he doesn't live here."

Lorelai looked up from her pie, studying Luke's face while he looked at the photo of Christopher. She had seen it earlier herself. It was a photo someone else had taken of him, while Christopher stood on the Golden Gate Bridge with his arms thrown wide and a huge smile on his face.

Luke glanced on it for barely more than a second before Rory drew his attention away with her Hug-a-World.

Just a few weeks prior, Lorelai had bought Rory something called a Hug-a-World at a garage sale. Rory loved the thing, and she was able to name most of the countries shown on it, even though some of the name pronunciations tripped her up.

She took the Hug-a-World everywhere, so of course she had it with her while she talked to Luke.

"He lives…here," Rory told him, rotating the plush globe until she found the United States. "Calforna."

Some of the state names were hard for her, too.

Rory turned the globe a little more, and pointed on the North Eastern coast of the United States.

"And you live here, Luuu. In Connect-ti-cut, with me."

"Yeah, I do. I like living in Connecticut with you."

Rory turned herself around on Luke's lap, standing up to throw her arms around his neck. Luke returned the hug, meeting Lorelai's eyes and smiling over Rory's shoulder.

Different was good, Lorelai decided. Different was very, very good.


	14. 1987

A year ago exactly, Luke and Lorelai brought in the New Year together by accident. On December 31st, 1986, as they waited for the clock to hit twelve together, this second celebration was anything but an accident.

Just like the year before, Rory was warm and asleep in bed while Luke and Lorelai sit outside. Unlike last year, there was no snow, just a deep-seated coldness that made Lorelai grumble.

"Winter is no good without snow," Lorelai pouted, moving herself closer to the little grill Luke had brought with him. He had already made her a hot toddy—noticeably _without_ the alcohol—but Lorelai was still cold.

"Winter is never good. All it does is create problems," Luke told her, taking a glance at his watch before putting more coals on the grill. It had been used earlier to make burgers; now the grill was for warmth. "Pipes freeze, streets freeze. People are too stupid to know how to deal with either and accidents happen. The whole season is annoying."

"You live in the wrong part of the country to hate winter so passionately."

Lorelai scooted closer again. Luke sighed and raised one of his arms for her to tuck herself under.

With a smile on her face—this was what she was trying to achieve—Lorelai fitted herself close against Luke. She was much warmer next to his body heat, partly because Luke was bigger than she was and partly because of the happy glow now filling her to be so close to him.

"Let's just hope these fireworks happen at all. Taylor put Kirk in charge of them for God knows what reason." As close to Luke as she was, Lorelai was able to feel the rumble of his voice in his chest as he spoke.

"Sometimes I can see why you say everyone here is crazy. Mostly I just think you're grumpy."

When Luke laughed, she could feel the rumble of that, too. Lorelai tilted her head back, examining the stubble covering Luke's strong jaw. His gaze was on the clear skies above them. The light of the full moon robbed his eyes of color, turning blue to silver.

There was a time in Lorelai's life when she considered herself braver than she did then. She recalled a time when she was reckless in her life before Rory. The Lorelai from before would have kissed Luke by now.

The current Lorelai wanted to. She felt it like an ache in her stomach as she stood wrapped in his warmth, looking up at his face.

Luke was still looking toward town when Lorelai took a deep breath. New Years was as good a time as any to kiss somebody, right? She was just leaning forward onto her tiptoes when a sharp _bang!_ drew her attention away.

Startled, Lorelai looked up at the sky as Luke laughed.

"Taylor is going to have a stroke over this, it's only 11:55. Oh man, poor Kirk."

One firework went off prematurely, followed by about ten more in rapid succession. There was no pause between the explosions. The sparks and colors all overlapped, turning the sky into a muddle of lights.

With her heart pounding in her chest, Lorelai still couldn't help but laugh a little at the image of a red-faced Taylor watching the same display.

"Do you think he ran out already?" Lorelai asked. After those fireworks faded from the sky, no more appeared.

"That's impossible. With how much Taylor plans for the stupid New Year's show, there has to be more."

After several minutes of lag time, there was more. They started high, all going off in approximately the same area of the sky. And then, suddenly, they started appearing lower and all over the sky.

"He's going to catch the whole damn town on fire," Luke said, laughing more as the fireworks became more and more erratic.

Lorelai had actually never seen Luke laugh more than he was now, at this failure of a fireworks show. He pulled Lorelai closer to him as another dangerously low firework went off.

Now _Lorelai_ was the one with her eyes fixed on the sky, watching the last firework fade away as the church bells finally rang for the New Year.

She was still coming down off of the adrenaline of what she had almost done, so it was safe to say that Lorelai Gilmore was not paying attention when Luke put a hand on her cheek.

And because she hadn't been paying attention, she was very surprised to find herself kissing Luke.

Even though the air was so bitterly cold, Luke's lips were still warm, and so was his hand as it got tangled in her hair in his attempt to pull her closer. Without even thinking about it, Lorelai wrapped her arms around Luke's neck, pressing her body as close to his as she could despite their heavy winter coats.

That dark stubble was rough on her cheek, but Lorelai didn't care. She also didn't mind the chill in the air anymore, for she suddenly was no longer cold.

The New Year of 1987 surely went down as a failure in Taylor's book, but for Luke and Lorelai, it couldn't be more perfect.


	15. Adventures in Babysitting

Lorelai didn't even have time to wrap her head around what happened on New Year's Eve when Luke called her in a panic.

"What do you do with three year olds?" He asked in a voice Lorelai had never heard from him before. Lorelai didn't have a phone in the gardening shed; Luke had called the Inn's line and asked for her.

"What do you mean what do you do with three year olds?" Lorelai asked, her brows coming together in confusion. As far as she knew, Rory was the only three year old Luke knew, and she was busy playing taste tester for Sookie's new cookie recipes.

"You remember, I told you that I have a nephew? Well, Liz, that's my sister, she decided she wanted to go to Springfield for the weekend. What's in Springfield, you might ask? I'm not really sure, because _I_ didn't ask because _I_ didn't want to know. And believe me, she didn't ask if I would watch Jess, she just showed up to the diner with him and some of his toys and clothes and off she went."

"So…you have your nephew for the weekend? Jess, his name is Jess?"

"Yeah, his name is Jess. And yeah, I guess I have him for the weekend." The tone of Luke's voice told Lorelai that he hadn't realized what he was getting into until that moment.

This was one of the rare weekends that Lorelai actually had off. Before the phone call, she had been sitting in the garden shed and counting the cash she kept in a lockbox underneath one of the floorboards. She had been saving as much as possible, and she was hoping that if she had enough, she might convince the bank to match her savings in a loan so she could get that house.

Amazingly it was still on the market. Lorelai checked, every single day. And every day she let out a little sigh of relief when she saw that red 'for sale' sign in the yard.

"Okay, well, why don't you bring him to me and he can play with Rory until you close the diner?"

"Really?" The relief was evident in Luke's voice. "You would do that?"

"Well, I am the one with exponentially more three year old experience in this conversation."

Before Luke could answer, there was a loud crash followed by a "Jess, no!"

There was a soft thud. Luke must have set the phone down to deal with whatever Jess had done. Lorelai sat twisting the phone cord around her finger while she waited for Luke to return to the phone.

"Sorry, apparently old sports trophies are more exciting than stuffed toys. He's smart, he pulled the drawers out to make stairs so he could reach them."

Lorelai laughed. "Rule one of three year olds: they are secretly tiny evil geniuses."

"You really wouldn't mind watching him?" Luke asked, sounding unsure suddenly. "I mean, I don't want to burden you."

"It's fine, Luke, I promise. I'm not working today anyway, and I bet Rory would love to have a playmate for the day."

It took Luke fifteen minutes to figure out how to put Jess's car seat in his truck and then drive him to the inn. Lorelai and Rory were waiting for them at the window. Rory had been entirely too excited when Lorelai told her, and insisted that they watch the window.

"Loooook!" Rory cried, pointing and bouncing. "Luuuuke! And my new friend!"

Luke was carrying a little boy with chubby, rosy cheeks and wavy dark hair. He kind of looked like Luke, in his coloring, except that his big eyes were brown.

"Thank you, so much," Luke told Lorelai as he sat Jess down on his feet beside Rory. He was just a little bit bigger than her. Rory hugged him almost before Luke had the little boy completely on his feet.

"It's no problem," Lorelai told him. She meant it. Despite all the time she'd been in Stars Hollow, she still didn't have many friends…at least not any with children. A lot of the mothers in town looked down on her. Lorelai was actually ecstatic that Rory would have someone who wasn't an adult to play with.

Luke looked over at the two toddlers. Rory had already taken Jess's hand in her own, dragging him to the kitchen table. Lorelai had set out the homemade playdough, rolling pin, and cookie cutters Sookie had given Rory for Christmas.

"You're sure he'll be good here?"

Lorelai gave Luke a look that made it clear that the question he was asking was a ridiculous one. Luke smiled sheepishly before taking Lorelai's hand in much the same manner that Rory had taken Jess's.

Luke moved forward and kissed Lorelai softly.

"Thank you," he said again, before walking to Jess and bowing his head close to the little boy's to tell him to be good while he was gone.

Lorelai sat on the couch, which was in the same little room as the table, and watched while Rory and Jess's chubby little hands worked the dough. Both of them sat on their knees, so that they could reach the table.

"Luke's my uncle," Jess told Rory while they worked. Luke had been right—Jess was smart. He spoke in full sentences, much the same that Rory did.

"Luke's my fwiend!" Finally, Rory was able to conquer the 'k' in Luke's name. But r's were giving her trouble; she said her own name as 'Rowy'.

Lorelai made the pair box macaroni and cheese on the little hotplate she kept on the counter. They ate side by side on the couch, cheese and juice staining their lips and cheeks while they watched a Sesame Street VHS.

After lunch was always Rory's nap time, but having Jess there made her entirely too excited to sleep. So instead, Lorelai bundled both of them up to play outside.

The grass was dead, and there was still no snow, but that didn't stop the two of them from running and playing a two-person game of tag. Despite the cold weather, Lorelai opened a window so she could hear their peals of laughter while she washed the lunch dishes.

Even though Rory and Jess were wrapped up in playing with each other, Lorelai said a silent thank you that she hadn't had twins. Just having another kid around somehow made her more tired than she usually was, and Jess wasn't even misbehaving, despite Luke's concerns.

When both of them were red-cheeked and red-nosed, Lorelai put on her own coat and mittens and took them to the inn for some of Sookie's hot chocolate and to sit by the fire.

Rory and Jess ran ahead of her the whole way there, joined by the hands.

"Where did this little cutie come from?" Sookie asked once Lorelai caught up with the kids. Rory had led Jess right to the kitchen.

"Jess lives in Nework!" Rory told Sookie, turning 'New York' into one word. Jess nodded beside her, his dark waves bouncing around his head.

Sookie smiled at Rory before looking up at Lorelai.

"Jess is Luke's nephew. He's staying with Luke for the weekend, but I'm keeping him for today so Luke can keep the diner open."

There was a teasing look in Sookie's eyes that made Lorelai blush, but Sookie didn't get a chance to say anything. Rory was tugging at her apron, asking for hot chocolate with giant marshmallows for herself and Jess.

While they drank their hot chocolate and warmed up by the fire, Jess made up stories for Rory while they looked at picture books.

"…then the pwincess kicked the dwagon!" Jess had a hard time with r's, it seemed. Just like Rory.

It didn't take long, though, for the two to become sleepy in the warmth of the fire and hot chocolate. When both their heads started to droop and their eyelids had a hard time staying open, Lorelai enlisted Sookie's help in carrying them back to the shed.

"So you're babysitting for Luke, then?" Sookie asked, readjusting Rory on her hip. She also gave Lorelai a sideways glance as they walked across the inn's lawn.

"Just for today. You know how Luke is, kids kind of freak him out."

Sookie gave a laugh that sounded like a snort.

"With all the time he spend with you and Rory, he could probably open his own daycare-diner combo."

Again Lorelai blushed, but she didn't say anything. Sookie and Lorelai laid Rory and Jess next to each other on the bed and removed their shoes.

"I think they'll be good for a while. They played hard today," Lorelai whispered.

Sookie gave a little shake of her head and squeezed Lorelai's arm lightly as she made her way out of the shed.

"Tell Luke hi for me."

As soon as he had the diner closed, Luke rushed back to Lorelai's.

"Was he okay?" He asked before he even made it in the door. Lorelai shushed him. Rory and Jess were still asleep, their heads tilted close together and Rory's fine brown curls tangling with Jess's black hair.

"He was fine," Lorelai whispered to Luke, coming to stand beside him over the bed. Luke was smiling at the two toddlers, who held hands even in their slumber.

"I almost don't want to move him," Luke whispered.

"Well, that would put me on the couch and you out of luck," Lorelai teased him.

Luke shouldered Jess's bag before scooping him from the bed. At the door, he kissed Lorelai again over Jess's head.

"Thank you again," he told her. "You really are a life saver. I owe you a really nice date for this."

While she only smiled widely in response, Lorelai's heart picked up it's pace a little at the word 'date'.

"I'll hold you to that for sure," Lorelai told him, unable to resist the urge to kiss him one more time.


	16. The Dating Game

There were lots of things Lorelai was good at, lots of things she prided herself on.

She knew all the words to _Casa Blanca_.

She had successfully potty trained Rory in only a week.

She knew how to sew, not just little things like pillow cases or throw blankets, but actual clothes.

She knew the steps to a few ballroom dances—this was a particularly useless skill in her new life, but still one she was proud of.

But dating wasn't really something Lorelai was able to pride herself on. After all, the first real relationship she had ended with her pregnant and the father bailing.

Now she had Luke in her life, and she really wasn't sure what to do about it all.

It all made her really nervous. Lorelai wasn't the only one involved in this; there was also Rory. And while Rory loved Luke, it made Lorelai's heart ache to think what might happen if things didn't work out between her and Luke.

She didn't even like to devote one second to the thought.

Besides, those were thoughts she probably shouldn't have been having when she was about to go on her first _official_ date with Luke.

While she got ready, slipping on a long-sleeved red dress and holding her breath as she tugged on the zipper, Lorelai had to explain to Rory that, no, she could not come with her and Luke.

"Why?" Rory asked, sitting on their shared bed while Lorelai twisted and turned in the full length mirror in their bedroom area. Lorelai was surprised that the dress still fit—it was something she hadn't even tried to wear since before Rory was born.

"Because sometimes big people go places without little girls and boys. Big people like to do things that little kids think is boring, like sit quietly. And we eat food like salads, not just macaroni and chicken nuggets." Well, sometimes. Lorelai honestly still preferred the toddler diet Rory stuck to.

Rory nodded in the sage kind of way only children can manage. That explanations seemed perfectly fine to her.

"I miss Jess," Rory said, her lower lip sticking out. It had only been a week since Liz had come and collected Jess, but, as he was Rory's only friend, she was feeling it pretty hard.

"I know you do, baby. But remember, Luke's sister said she is going to bring him to visit this summer."

Rory nodded again, but the sad look didn't leave her sweet little face. Sighing, Lorelai pulled some extra pieces of makeup out of her makeup bag and handed them to Rory.

"Wanna do makeup with Mama before Mia gets here to play with you?"

Mia was the only person Lorelai had told about Luke, though she was certain that Sookie at least suspected something was going on. Lorelai did not yet have a lot of friends in town, yet everyone knew Luke because he had grown up there. She already felt like the odd man out…she didn't know how well it would be received by everyone else, her dating Luke.

The makeup worked like a charm. While Lorelai painted her lips to match the shade of her dress, Rory used her own tube of lipstick the same way one might use blush. She created huge, irregular pink circles on her cheeks.

While Lorelai's eyeliner and mascara framed her blue eyes, Rory's made a pretty good copy of a raccoon's mask.

"Bootiful, Mama," Rory told Lorelai once the two were finished.

"Right back at you, sister." Lorelai let Rory put on her birthday dress, very nearly too small for her, because she wanted to be dressed up, too.

Mia arrived not long before Luke did. Lorelai, who was always running late, had made sure to get ready extra early. She just had a feeling that Luke would be the kind of guy who would pick a girl up exactly on time, and she had been right.

What Lorelai hadn't expected was the total change of Luke's appearance. She had become so used to his flannel shirts and backwards baseball caps that it was all she could ever imagine him wearing.

Luke had ditched his baseball cap for the night, revealing his dark hair. Lorelai had only seen the little tufts that stuck out behind his ears and under the bill of the cap. He was also wearing a black button down shirt that made his eyes shine bluer than usual.

Before they left, Luke took Rory's hand and twirled her around a few times so that her skirt billowed up around her. It brought a smile to Lorelai's face and made her forget some of her nervousness. For someone who always grumped about kids, Luke was good with them.

"You be good to her tonight, Lucas," Mia said as Lorelai and Luke made their way out the door. The name caught Lorelai's attention and she turned her head to look up at Luke, her eyebrow raised.

There was a blush in Luke's cheeks as he grumbled, "Mia. You know I don't go by my full name."

Mia winked at Lorelai before addressing Luke again. "That's the name your father gave you, so that is the name I'll use."

Luke looked grumpy, but nobody ever argued with Mia, so he left it at that. But his silence didn't stop Lorelai from laughing as Luke placed his hand on the small of her back and led her to his trunk.

"Your full name is _Lucas_?"

"Don't be getting sassy," Luke teased her, opening the truck door for her. "I'll take you to the healthiest restaurant in the tristate area if you don't watch it."

Lorelai's eating habits had a habit of their own, and that was leaving Luke aghast more often than not. In all honesty, Lorelai really wasn't sure where they were going. With the life she had led at her parents' house, she had explored Europe and other swanky places than she had the actual state of Connecticut.

All she had known was Hartford, where she had grown up, and Stars Hollow, where she lived.

So when Luke turned the truck off a side road of Stars Hollow and headed away from town, Lorelai didn't have any idea where they might be going.

"Is this the part where you finally take me out of town and kill me?"

The intermittent light of the streetlamps revealed her smirk to Luke when he turned to look at her. He had forgotten the time he lectured her about transient murderers, but obviously Lorelai hadn't.

"Oh, yeah," Luke said, catching on to her. "I'm all about the long con."

The restaurant Luke had in mind was only _slightly_ outside of Stars Hollow. He knew for a fact that Lorelai would have no idea it even existed, as it was on the east side of town while the inn was on the west side. Lorelai had a tendency to stay on the west side of town, considering she didn't have a car.

"Sniffy's Tavern?" Lorelai read from the sign out front as Luke parked the truck.

"Yup," Luke told her with no further explanation. He came around to her side of the truck and opened the door, offering her his hand as she stepped down. "Trust me, you'll like this place."

Luke kept Lorelai's hand even when she had her feet solidly on the ground. He led her inside the restaurant, zigzagging through some tables until he reached a booth.

" _Luke,_ that was a maître d', and you ignored him!" Lorelai whispered as Luke ushered her into the booth.

"It's okay, my name's on the table anyway," Luke told her, pointing to a little name card. Indeed, it did have ' _Danes, 2_ ' written on it.

"You're a high-roller at Sniffy's Tavern, are you?" Lorelai asked, raising an eyebrow. Before Luke could answer, an older woman was approaching their table, a big smile on her face.

"Lucas, who is this pretty thing?" The woman asked. Lorelai cut her eyes at Luke.

"Maisy, this is Lorelai Gilmore."

"Oh, _Lorelai!_ Buddy! Lucas has Lorelai here!" While Maisy waited for Buddy to appear, Lorelai turned to Luke.

"Am I the only person who doesn't secretly call you Lucas?" Luke only gave her a smirk.

"We have been waiting for Lucas to bring you here, Lorelai. For all the time he spends talking about you, you'd think he'd be able to conjure you from thin air!"

"Oh, well, I love your place," Lorelai said, returning Maisy's smile.

"It used to be a whorehouse!" Maisy told her, just as an older man appeared at her side.

"Look, Buddy, this is the famous Lorelai."

"Well, famous Lorelai, it is nice to meet you. It's good to know Lucas wasn't just telling us stories."

Lorelai smiled at Buddy. She was nervous, and looking for something to focus on, so she lifted the menu before her. Luke put his hand over it, pushing it back down to the table.

"Don't bother," he whispered to her. "No matter what you order, they'll just change it and bring you whatever they want to."

As Luke whispered to her, Maisy and Buddy were arguing in front of them about whether wine or champagne would go better with…well, whatever it was they planned on making. Neither Maisy nor Buddy had finished a full sentence, so whatever their dinner would be remained a mystery.

"Oh, um, Lorelai isn't twenty-one yet, Maisy, so—" Luke was cut off by Maisy waving her hand at him dismissively.

"Oh, Lucas, I won't tell if you won't tell. You brought the girl here on a date, let her have a little fun."

Lorelai gave Luke a big smile as Buddy and Maisy wandered away to what she assumed was the kitchen, still arguing as they went.

"See, _they_ don't care if I'm a little underage."

"They'll also very proud of the fact that this place used to be a whorehouse, so I wouldn't say their moral compasses necessarily point North."

Lorelai was laughing at Luke's summary of Maisy and Buddy when a waitress brought two flutes and a bottle of champagne.

"Are you gonna let _your_ moral compass point a little off course tonight?" She asked, nodding towards the bottle of champagne.

"For tonight, I will," Luke decided after a moment, passing her a flute. He raised his glass to Lorelai, and she clinked hers against it. The champagne on Luke's tongue reminded him of the first New Year's they spent together.

It didn't take long for Maisy and Buddy to reappear, with a pasta in butter sauce and little bits of crab and shrimp in it.

"Y'know, I told Rory she couldn't come with us because there would be salad, because that's what grownups eat together, and I'm so glad I came up with that fib. Sookie's had her on some kind of seafood kick lately and she would be so mad at us if she knew we were eating this right now."

"I don't know whether to feel bad that Rory wanted to come or that the idea of eating a salad was enough to make her _not_ want to come."

Luke let Lorelai have his glass of champagne as well as her own. Despite the heavy pasta meal, and the fact that it was only two flutes, Lorelai's cheeks were rosy and her speech just the slightest bit slurred by the time they left.

"I'm sorry," she said with a giggle, Luke catching her by the waist when she tripped a little leaving the restaurant.

"I'd be more concerned if you _weren't_ affected by alcohol, even if it is just champagne," Luke told her, keeping his hand at her waist as they walked.

"That's how Rory was conceived," Lorelai said once they were back in the truck. She hadn't so much as mentioned Rory's father in quite a while, but the alcohol was making her loose in her talk. "Not champagne. No, it was something awful and bitter that Christopher made from mixing a lot of different liquors my parents had."

Lorelai shook her head, knocking some of her curls loose from where she'd piled them on her head.

"I'm sorry, that is _not_ good date conversation." She looked over at Luke, his face illuminated by the light streaming from Sniffy's Tavern's windows. "Maybe I really should never drink."

Luke gave her a small smile and moved forward, cupping her cheek as he pulled her in to kiss her. He could taste the leftover champagne on her lips, and for once he liked the taste of the drink.

"You can talk about it any time you need to," he told her honestly.

Lorelai was only twenty years old. She had a daughter that would soon be four. She had never had any kind of help from her daughter's father. Luke may have never dated a girl quite like Lorelai before, but even he knew that those burdens weren't something that should be carried alone.

And as for Lorelai, despite how bad she considered herself to be at dating, she was suddenly aware of how fortunate she was to be dating Luke.


	17. Cat's Outta the Bag

"What's going on with you and Luke?"

It was a simple question, but definitely not one Lorelai expected to hear while tucking in the corners of a bed sheet. The question, asked in Sookie's voice, startled Lorelai, making her drop the mattress on her own hand.

She wiggled her fingers out from underneath the soft weight and turned to the young cook.

"That's a vague question," Lorelai pointed out. "By 'going on', are you referring to our underground opium ring we're running using the Inn's poppies or—"

Sookie cut Lorelai off, forcing herself between the fast-spoken words.

"I mean how it appears that you, Lorelai Gilmore, are dating grumpy diner connoisseur Luke Danes and neglected to tell me."

Sookie's face, usually wearing a dimpled smile, dropped into a look of sadness.

Lorelai immediately felt terrible. She hadn't meant to leave Sookie out—Lorelai and Luke were just trying to keep things quiet. Rory being a factor made any relationship Lorelai could have more complicated by default.

"Anyway, when Rory was playing in the kitchen earlier, she told me you kiss Luke on the mouth."

Lorelai wasn't all that surprised she was ousted by Rory of all people. Kids are honest almost to a fault, she that. Rory especially so. Almost anything that passed through that little girl's mind came out of her mouth.

Lorelai felt heat flood her face as her friend stood before her.

"I'm sorry," she said, lost for words for once. "I wasn't trying to keep it secret from you. We've just been trying to keep it quiet in general. I mean, I am a twenty year old, never been married outsider with a three year old kid, and I chose to date the town Good Ol' Boy."

The sad look on Sookie's face melted into an excited smile.

"I'm not really that upset, I just wanted to hear you say it yourself!"

And then, very quickly, Sookie covered the distance separating herself and Lorelai so that she could take Lorelai's hands in her own and force her into joining Sookie's happy dance. Soon enough, Lorelai had joined Sookie in jumping up and down and making excited squealing noises, like they were both fourteen.

"I bet whoever has the room under this one thinks some kind of weird, kinky sex is going on up here," Sookie giggled, interrupting their squeals.

"It's only two in the afternoon, too. We're some real freaks!" Lorelai added, stomping her feet extra hard on the floor a few times, earning herself more giggles from Sookie.


	18. An Upgrade, If You Will

August 17th, 1987 was a date Lorelai would never forget. It was the day she got her house.

Luke had told her it would be a good idea to follow through with her plan of saving half of the money needed for a down payment.

"It will show the bank you're serious about the house. I bet it will make them feel a little more comfortable giving a twenty—"

Here Lorelai cut him off to remind him she had, indeed, turned twenty-one.

"That old man brain of yours is turning senile already."

"It's just turning to mush from all those movies you make me watch. What do you call them? The Baby Pack?"

"The _Brat_ Pack, Lucas."

"Stop that. It doesn't matter, anyway, the point is, I think you've got a chance in getting a loan."

Luke was right. It worked. The bank matched Lorelai's savings, giving her more than enough to make a solid bid on the house. Not that anyone else was bidding on it, but still.

It was her house.

Lorelai had a house.

She was so happy that after she got the news, she made a beeline for the diner.

Lorelai rushed past patrons, one of whom was Kirk. Feebly, and to deaf ears, he tried to stop Lorelai from going behind Luke's counter.

"Hey! You can't do that! Luke never lets me, anyway."

Lorelai not only went behind the counter, but she ducked into the kitchen, where she found Luke grilling a burger.

"Lorelai!" He said in surprise, turning to look at her. "I've told you that you can't just—"

Luke intended to scold her, but he was soon silenced when Lorelai all but threw herself at him. He really couldn't get a word out edgewise once her lips were on his.

He didn't even have to ask what she was so happy about. With one arm around Lorelai's waist, Luke carefully—and blindly, as his attention was heavily on the girl in his arms—placed his spatula on the grill behind him.

Luke was never sorry when he did something to annoy Taylor. But on that day, Luke was extra unapologetic about the slightly too-charred, sloppily thrown together burger he served to the grocer several minutes later.

He had more important things to occupy his time, like kissing an overjoyed Lorelai Gilmore.


	19. Christopher

Luke and Lorelai had been dating for roughly six months before Luke even dared to ask about Rory's father.

They were sitting on Lorelai's couch—which had once been Babette's. All of the furniture in the house had, at one point, either been Babette's, Miss Patty's, or came from the garden shed where Lorelai and Rory had previously lived.

Rory had gone to bed hours ago, but Luke and Lorelai were still up, drinking gin and tonics. Gin and tonic, by the way, was just about the only drink the two of them were able to reach a mutual agreement on. Most things Lorelai liked, Luke deemed as 'too girly'. On the other hand, Lorelai found Luke's favorites to be 'gross'.

Luke was sitting in the corner of the couch, while Lorelai was leaning against him, her legs stretched out across the rest of the couch.

Lorelai was wearing one of Luke's old sweatshirts from high school, a baggy gray thing with 'Stars Hollow High' printed across the chest. She had found it in his apartment and promptly stole it.

"They really need to think of better fruits to put in drinks," Lorelai said, looking disdainfully at the lime wedge floating in her glass.

"They put fruit in sangrias," Luke reminded her.

"Yeah, but you don't like the good things in life. Like most wines."

"I like _you_ ," Luke said, placing a kiss on top of Lorelai's dark hair.

A wide smile spread across her face. "Alcohol always makes you a little cheesy. You would think you _would_ like wine more, since wine and cheese go together."

Alcohol didn't just make Luke sentimental. It also made him braver with his speech.

"Can I ask you something?" Luke picked up a piece of her hair, twirling it around his finger.

"You just did," Lorelai said with a giggle. Alcohol made her rosy cheeked and easy with her laughter. "But go ahead."

"What was Rory's dad like?"

Luke had always been curious—and a little worried—about Rory's elusive father.

"Oh." Lorelai said at first. She reached over and placed her drink on the coffee table. "Well, if we're going to talk about that, we should go upstairs. I don't want Rory to wake up and hear."

Rory's room was downstairs. She loved having her own room. Lorelai's own room was upstairs. Luke followed suit and placed his drink beside Lorelai's before taking the hand she held out to him.

Lorelai led Luke into her bedroom, pulling him down to sit beside her on the bed.

"You really want to know about Christopher?" Lorelai asked. Her hair was messed up on one side, where she had been laying on Luke. He reached his hand out, smoothing it down for her.

"Well…kind of. If you don't mind telling me, I mean."

"You, my friend, are about to have the honor of being the only one in this town who really knows about him."

"Now I feel privileged."

Lorelai pushed her hair behind her ears and her lips went into a kind of pout. And then she shrugged.

"Christopher…is nothing like you." She said honestly. "He wasn't ready to grow up. I shouldn't have expected him to be. He got kicked out of private schools for playing stupid pranks that I thought were funny at the time, but now when I think about them, they make me kind of cringe."

Lorelai nodded, like she was reassuring herself.

"He talked about wanting to leave and all these adventures across Europe that he wanted to go on, and when Rory was born, he decided that wasn't going to stop him from going. God, I am _so_ glad I threw a huge fit when my dad wanted me to marry Christopher."

"Your dad wanted you to get married at sixteen?!" Luke couldn't believe it. He himself was nearly in his mid-twenties, and he certainly didn't feel old enough to be getting married. Marriage at sixteen was just unconceivable.

"Well, yeah, then we could have all pretended that Rory was supposed to happen."

Luke shook his head, like he was trying to clear the backwards logic from his head.

"He was the only person I slept with," Lorelai's blue eyes peeked up at Luke from under her lashes. She had hung her head, playing with the hem of her borrowed sweatshirt. "I mean, if you were wondering. I wasn't like, a slut, or anything. There wasn't every any question that he was Rory's father."

A sinking feeling immediately enter Luke's chest and dropped down through his stomach. That wasn't what he was getting at whatsoever, and he felt terrible that Lorelai thought that he was implying something like that.

"Lorelai," Luke said, his voice soft as he reached out for her. "I didn't mean anything like—"

Lorelai stopped him with a little smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.

"I know," she told him, allowing herself to be pulled close to him. "But I wanted _you_ to know."

They were quiet for a few moments while Luke held her. Lorelai could feel his ever-present stubble against her forehead when he kissed her there.

"Mostly, though, Christopher is _gone_ , and I'm glad he is. He isn't what Rory needs in her life, in a father."

Lorelai left it unspoken, but she was thinking that Luke was a much better fit, even though he himself would never admit he might be father material.


	20. Alabama, Arkansas

For her fourth birthday, Rory asked Luke for a map of the United States.

"My Hug-a-World doesn't have it big enough," she lamented. So alike bought her a map, and he helped her hang it up on her bedroom wall. Luke hung it low enough that Rory could easily reach it.

From her mother, Rory asked for push-pins and sticky notes in a rainbow of colors. Lorelai didn't quite understand the request, but she obliged her daughter's wish for office supplies.

"Luke, will you come help me?" Rory asked the day after her birthday, after her map and supplies were set up. "Bring your work pen, please."

Rory always called the pen Luke always had his 'work pen'. Lorelai thought it was adorable.

"Okay, Rory, hold on," Luke tried to give Lorelai the spoon he was holding, but Lorelai threw her hands up.

"I'm dangerous in the kitchen. You know that."

"Lorelai."

"Remember Jonestown? Me in the kitchen has the same effect, except the mass poisoning is an accident."

"Lorelai, it's just spaghetti sauce! All you have to do is stir it until I get back. Look, I even turned the heat down way low. There's no way you can mess this up."

Luke pressed the spoon into her hand, leaving a pouting Lorelai alone in the kitchen.

Rory was waiting for Luke in her bedroom, sitting on the floor in front of her map, office supplies before her.

"Okay, what's up?" Luke asked, sitting beside Rory on the floor.

"I wanna fill my map up, but I can't write. I need you to write for me."

Luke smirked, amused with the intelligent little girl sitting beside him. "And what are we filling this map up with?"

"All the people I know," Rory told him. "See, I have an orange push-pin to put in New York for Jess, because that's his favorite color. I need you to write 'Jess' on the orange sticky note, so everyone will understand my map."

She wanted Luke to help her make a key for her map. Luke wasn't surprised Jess was her first thought. She begged to call Luke's nephew every other day. Both kids were missing each other a lot after Jess and Liz's visit last summer.

Rory picked up the orange push-pin and put it in New York. She may not have been able to write, but she was able to read her map flawlessly. Rory turned to Luke expectantly.

"Oh, right," Luke said, picking up the orange sticky note and writing Jess's name. He peeled it off and put it in Rory's waiting hand, and Rory hung it up on the wall.

"Pink is for Stars Hollow. But I know too many people here, so we can't write everybody. Can you write you, me, Mama, and Lane?"

Lane was Rory's new friend from preschool, a little Korean girl with a silky black bob and red glasses. Rory held Lane on the same level she held Jess, and that was high praise in Rory's world.

While Rory put the pink push-pin in Connecticut, Luke wrote the names as small as he could on a pink sticky note so they would all fit.

"Green is for Christopher," Rory said, picking up another push-pin. Luke knew green was Rory's least favorite color.

"Don't write 'dad', write 'Christopher'," Rory instructed Luke, pushing the green pin into California. Luke did as she asked, handing her the green sticky note. As far as Luke knew, that was all the people Rory knew, but she still had a few different colors set out and waiting.

"Who else is there?" Luke asked, watching Rory pick up a blue push-pin.

"Laura Ingalls Wilder," Rory said simply, pushing the pin into South Dakota. Luke wrote it just in time for Rory to pick up a yellow pin.

"And who lives in Missouri?" The yellow pin was put right by the Mississippi River.

"Huckleberry Finn."

"What about Virginia?" That state got itself a purple push-pin.

"Pocahontas lived in Jamestown, silly."

There was only one pin left, a red one.

"I would love to know who you know who lives in New Mexico," Luke said, his pin ready.

"Billy the Kid and his Regulators! Remember? We read those penny comics Bootsy was selling." Old Billy the Kid comics had been Rory's bedtime stories for a month, and only Luke was allowed to read them to her.

Rory took a step back to look at their handiwork.

"Do you like our map?" She asked, smiling at the colored pins and sticky notes lined up carefully beside the map.

"Yeah, I do," Luke told her just as Rory jumped on his back. Luke hooked his arms under her little legs and stood up, carrying her to the kitchen piggyback style.

In the kitchen, they were greeted with plates of spaghetti and meatballs.

"Wow, Mama, I thought only Sookie and Luke could cook!" Rory exclaimed, sliding off Luke's back to take her spot at the table.

"Ha-ha, very funny, kid."

Luke gave Lorelai a kiss. "There's no Kool-Aid in any of this?"

Rory howled with laughter, the tease going over her head. "Luuuuuke, Kool-Aid doesn't go in spaghetti! Maybe only Sookie can cook."

Lorelai smiled, shaking her head at her daughter.

"What were you two doing in there, anyway?" Lorelai asked Luke. She was answered with a shrug.

"We were being cartographers," Luke said simply.

"Yeah!" Rory chimed in happily. "We're cartographers!"


	21. Dark Day

On November 30th during the first year Luke and Lorelai were dating, Lorelai woke to a Stars Hollow without Luke in it.

The diner, much to her surprise, was closed when she went to get coffee before work. She had already dropped Rory off at school.

"Taylor," Lorelai called out. The market was closest to the diner, and Taylor was outside sweeping the entrance of his store clean from fallen autumn leaves. "Where's Luke?"

The sight of the diner silent and empty sent Lorelai's heart into a tailspin. The fear felt very familiar, and she knew why. It felt too similar to the day she found out Christopher had left Connecticut.

Lorelai shook her head, trying to force the thoughts away. She knew it was irrational. Luke wouldn't ever do that. But her heart couldn't help it; this was a pain it had felt before. Her heart was making assumptions her head couldn't get rid of.

Taylor turned his head toward the diner. His brow furrowed at its dark windows. Obviously he hadn't realized it was closed until Lorelai called his attention to it.

"You know, that's really a very good question. I couldn't tell you where that boy is, but I can tell you that closing your business without prior warning and without a sign of explanation is _not_ good business practice."

"I'll keep that in mind, Taylor," Lorelai said with a huff. Her breath came out in a white cloud in front of her.

 _Where could Luke be?_ She thought to herself. _He didn't say anything about this last night._

Luke had _just_ been at her house the night before. There hadn't been any conversation about his being gone. As Lorelai made her way to the Inn for work, she tried to puzzle out where in the world Luke might be.

Maybe he was in New York. Perhaps something happened with Liz and Jess, and he went there to be with them.

Or perhaps it was a different family member. Luke only talked about Liz and Jess, and Lorelai knew both of his parents were deceased, but surely Luke had more family out there somewhere.

Or perhaps it was business of some kind, though Lorelai couldn't figure out how it could be. The diner was something that Luke privately owned. It wasn't like Luke's was part of a corporation or like he had business partners of any kind.

Lorelai still hadn't come up with anything that made sense by the time she was in Sookie's kitchen, pouring herself a cup of coffee.

"Hey, Sook," Lorelai said over the chopping of knives and the clashing of pans against cook stoves as the kitchen moved around her. "Do you have any idea where Luke is today?"

Sookie looked up from some kind of stew she was cooking and shrugged. "What do you mean? Is he not at the diner?"

"No, the diner was closed this morning."

"Huh," Sookie said, sounding perplexed. She little a spoonful of stew from the pot and motioned Lorelai closer so she could taste it. "I didn't think Luke closed the diner."

"Neither did I," Lorelai told her. The stew was delicious—a mix of spices and tender meat and vegetables that were soft but good. Lorelai gave Sookie a thumbs up. "I didn't think he had ever closed it in all the time I've known him."

While Lorelai turned down beds and vacuumed, built up fires and replenished towels, she wondered about Luke. Where was he? Why did he go? Was he okay? Were _they_ okay?

The day seemed to pass in a snail's version of a warp speed. Lorelai felt like the hands of the clock weren't moving, even though she knew she was taking a peek about every five minutes.

Finally, Lorelai's shift ended and she went to collect Rory from preschool.

"Do you think Luke will make me cookies tonight if I ask real nice?" Rory asked, slipping her hand into her mother's after hugging Lane goodbye.

"I bet he will tomorrow," Lorelai told her daughter, mind racing to think of an excuse for Luke's absence. "He went out of town."

"For why?" Rory asked, cocking her head and sending her brown pigtails askew. Usually Rory's phrasing—'for why'—brought a smile to Lorelai's face. She thought it was adorable. But in that moment all she could do was chew on her lip.

"For business," Lorelai said after a few beats, giving her head a nod. She hadn't ever thought she would borrow words from her mother, but it came out of her mouth without even thinking.

Business was always the reason her own father was gone.

"But isn't his diner a business?" Rory asked, jumping into a pile of leaves on the sidewalk.

"Yes, it is."

"But his diner is here."

Lorelai nodded. "Well, yes it is, but sometimes business involves trips."

"Oh. Can I have a cookie from Sookie, then? 'Cause Luke isn't here so the diner isn't open, is it?"

"No, it isn't. We can go get you a cookie from Sookie."

Lorelai walked Rory first to the Inn, so she could have her cookie. Then she took Rory home and made box macaroni for dinner before giving Rory a bath and putting her to bed.

After Rory was asleep, Lorelai got some ice cream out of the freezer and sat on the couch. She decided she would stay up for a while, to see if Luke would turn up. She didn't have cable at the house, but one of the free channels was one that played reruns of old shows like _The Brady Bunch_ and _Gilligan's Island_ , which Lorelai didn't mind.

She curled up on the couch, ice cream in her lap. What she never intended was to fall asleep there in the living room waiting for Luke, but she did.

Lorelai didn't even realize she had fallen asleep until she woke several hours later. There was an infomercial playing on the TV, the glow of it blocked by someone in front of her.

"Hey," the voice said. It didn't take long for Lorelai to recognize it as Luke's voice. Her eyes adjusted to the dim light in the room. Luke was kneeling before her, his usual backwards baseball cap replaced with a beanie. He reached a hand out and smoothed her hair away from her face.

"Hi," Lorelai said, sitting up and patting the couch beside her. "How'd you get in here? I swear I locked the door today."

Lorelai had a bad habit of leaving the door unlocked, which frustrated Luke to no end. He was trying to break her of the habit.

"You did," he told her. "Good job. But you gave me the spare key, remember?"

Lorelai had gotten two sets of keys when she got the house. At first she had considered hiding the key somewhere outside in case she ever got locked out of the house, but on second thought she had decided it would be safer with Luke. Lorelai didn't trust herself not to forget where she hid it.

"Oh, yeah." Lorelai looked down at her hands in her lap. In her right hand, she still held the spoon she'd used to eat her ice cream. "Was I still holding ice cream, too?"

"Yeah. I put it back in the freezer, but I don't know how good it will be since it completely melted. I tried to take the spoon from you, too, but you kind of fought me on that one. That's what woke you up, me trying to get you to let go of the spoon."

Lorelai tossed the spoon onto the coffee table and turned to Luke. In addition to a beanie, he also had a heavier coat than he usually wore.

"I noticed you took a little vacation today," she told him. "Did you go Sasquatch hunting or something?"

She motioned to his clothing. Luke looked down at himself and shook his head.

"Yeah, um. Yeah. I should've told you before I left for the day, but I didn't think about it. Um…" Luke gave a shrug—or maybe it was a shiver, Lorelai couldn't quite tell— and looked around the room.

"Yesterday—it's already tomorrow, by the way. It's about four in the morning. I was going to just leave you a note before opening the diner, but you woke up. Anyway, yesterday was the anniversary of my dad's death, and I've been doing this thing where I kind of disappear every year since it happened and I should've told you earlier, but we weren't dating all those other November thirtieths, so I wasn't even thinking about it."

"Oh, Luke," Lorelai said, moving forward on the couch to embrace him in a hug. She felt his arms wrap tightly around her as she rested her head on his shoulder. "That's as good a reason to disappear for a day as any I've ever heard."

"Kirk tells people it's my dark day, but he's an idiot, so," Luke told her. His voice sounded thicker than it had before. "I just realized, when I was coming back into town, that you were probably worried."

Lorelai pulled back from him a little to place a kiss on his cheek. "What I'm worried about is how you're doing."

"I'm okay," Luke told her, shrugging again. "I just like to get away from town for the day."

Lorelai nodded. "Are you sure you want to open the diner today? It is Saturday. Rory doesn't have school and I don't have work. We could go upstairs and go to sleep for a little while."

"I wish, but Taylor'll be on my ass about it if I go two days with the diner closed without notice. He still tries to get my business licensed revoked because the big sign still says William's Hardware. No need to give Taylor any reason to get excited about enforcing ordinances."

"I'll walk you to the door, at least."

And she did. Luke stopped at the door to take her face between his hands, kissing her on the mouth.

"Sorry for disappearing," he whispered to her.

"It was a justified disappearance."

"Remember, it's _only_ November thirtieth. Disappearing on any other day means I'm dead or something, not me missing my dad."

"Right. November thirtieth is the Dark Day. Any other day is the day that those transient murderers you know so much about have finally caught up with you."

Despite himself, Luke left Lorelai's house with a smile on his face. The things that came out of that girl's mouth were a mess in the best way.


	22. Tooth Fairies, Newly Employed

"So, how are we going to do this?" Lorelai asked, a five dollar bill in one hand and a carefully crafted letter from the 'tooth fairy' in the other.

"I don't know why we even bother lying to kids about stuff like this. I mean, think about it, a tiny woman breaks into your room, takes one of your body parts, and leaves you money? It's a little creepy."

Lorelai rolled her eyes at Luke, but he didn't see because he didn't bother looking up from his fishing magazine.

"Not now, Scrooge. I need to figure out how to get this under her pillow without waking her up."

Rory had lost her first tooth the day before. Usually a solid sleeper, it had taken Lorelai over an hour to get the little girl to sleep because she was so excited.

"C'mon, Luke. You saw how excited she was. This tooth was all she could talk about today."

Luke sighed and put his magazine down.

"Bring me one of those little pillows from the couch."

Using a safety pin, Luke secured the money and the letter to the pillow.

"There. My dad always did this for Liz, because a feather dropping could wake her up."

Luke stood from the kitchen table to walk to Rory's room.

"What are you doing?" Lorelai whisper-shouted, lunging forward to catch his arm.

"I'm going to put it on her bed."

"But you're still wearing your boots. Those make noise. Noise might wake her, and while you are devastatingly handsome, you make a terrible tooth fairy."

Luke paused for a moment to look at Lorelai to see if she was being serious. He knew he didn't need to. Checking was futile. Of course she was serious. It still amazed him that he wasn't used to dating a girl that could probably qualify as certifiable, even if it was in a good way.

While Lorelai looked expectantly at him, Luke slipped his boots off, leaving him in his sock feet.

"So are socks allowed, or…?"

"Socks are preferred, so your feet don't make noise on the hardwood floors."

"Right, how silly of me. But what if my socks snag and I fall? The crash of my whole body would be way louder than my boots."

Lorelai's blue eyes felt like they were boring holes into him.

"Do not speak evil on this mission, Lucas Danes."

"I told you to stop calling me that."

"I will if you can get that in there without ruining a little girl's life."

Luke made his way to Rory's bedroom door, Lorelai creeping at his heels. Just as Luke's hand reached the doorknob, Lorelai pulled him backwards.

"Wait!" She whisper-shouted again, oblivious to the fact that Luke's socks nearly made it so that he couldn't catch himself before crashing into her. "The light. I need to turn it off so that it doesn't shine on her face and wake her up."

"How am I supposed to see in her room, then? You know it's pitch black in there."

That was Luke's own fault. He had insisted that Lorelai get thick curtains for Rory's room that couldn't be peered through.

 _Because of transient murderers,_ Lorelai had teased at the time.

"Lucky for you, Rory is incredibly anal about putting everything away before bedtime, so your chances of stumbling on a booby trap are fairly close to zero."

Luke obediently waited outside of Rory's door while Lorelai switched the light off.

"Can I go now, or have you thought of another ridiculous requirement?"

"Well, now that you mention it, I think it might be helpful to tape all of those giant marshmallows we have all over your body, that way if you fall down, they'll cushion the fall and keep you from making noise."

Ignoring his girlfriend, Luke carefully opened Rory's bedroom door. Luckily for Lorelai, Luke had greased all of the door hinges in the house, so the door opened silently.

Luke could feel Lorelai's eyes on him as we walked as quietly as he could across the floor towards Rory's bed. He hadn't thought it was a big deal before, but now that he was mid-act, he was suddenly nervous to misstep and wake Rory right up.

Practically tiptoeing, Luke walked the pillow to Rory's bed, placing it carefully next to her head. Then he used his socks to quickly slide himself back out of the room.

"Okay, there," Luke said once he was on the other side of Rory's door again. He was surprised to find his heart beating faster than it had been before. "It's done."

"Where's her tooth?" Lorelai asked, seeming surprised by his empty hands.

"Her tooth?" Luke asked, his eyebrows knitting together under the edge of his baseball cap.

"You know, the whole reason the _tooth_ fairy visits? The body part you were supposed to steal in exchange for money?"

Luke tipped his head back and rolled his eyes at the ceiling.

"You know what? I think I've embarrassed myself enough for you for the day. I am going to go to bed. It's your turn. I relinquish my tooth fairy duties to you."

Luke moved forward and planted a kiss on Lorelai's mouth before she could argue with him. Then he rushed up the stairs, escaping the situation and leaving Lorelai outside of Rory's bedroom door with his abandoned mission.


	23. Lorelai, In Pieces

"I told you to wait until I was done at the diner, and I would clean the gutters," Luke told Lorelai with a deep sigh, hooking one arm under her knees and the other around her waist as he lifted her.

"Yeah, but you also told me about all of the roof damage that can happen if you don't clean out the gutters," Lorelai pointed out. She winced a little as Luke carried her to his truck.

"I can't believe Babette let you borrow Morey's ladder. I don't know what she was thinking."

Lorelai had been trying to clean the gutters herself. Luke had told her that he would do them later that day, but Lorelai had been impatient because there was supposed to be a heavy rainstorm that evening.

She had fallen from the ladder. Though she was pretty sure her leg was broken, she was trying not to let on that she was seriously hurt to Rory.

Rory, luckily, knew her numbers and was able to dial the phone numbers for both the Independence Inn and Luke's Diner. If Rory hadn't been able to help her in this small way, Lorelai had no idea how she would have gotten Luke and Sookie to come and help them.

"Do you want me to take Rory with me to the Inn?" Sookie asked, jogging a little with Rory in her arms to catch up to Luke and Lorelai. "I don't know what to do here. This is a total role reversal. Usually I'm the one being sent to the hospital!"

"Do you want to go help Sookie cook or do you want to go to Babette's house?" Lorelai asked Rory over Luke's shoulder, ignoring the rest of what Sookie had said.

"Will Mia let me watch Disney Channel in one of the empty rooms?" Rory asked Sookie. Playing in one of the empty rooms was a treat Mia often let Rory take part in while she and Lorelai were living at the Inn.

"I'm sure she will," Sookie told Rory. That was enough to make up Rory's mind.

"I'm going to the Inn!" Turning to Sookie, Rory told her, "Luke says Disney Channel will make my brains rot."

"Luke's a _boy_ ," Sookie told Rory, taking her hand and leading the little girl to her car. "Boys don't know anything."

"I know that you shouldn't climb ladders and try to clean gutters if you don't know what you're doing," Luke called across the lawn to Sookie as he helped settle Lorelai in the passenger seat of his truck.

Sookie shrugged while Rory climbed into her backseat. "You got me there, Luke."

"You're never going to let me live this down, are you?" Lorelai asked. Luke had piled some pillows from her house in the floorboard, for her leg to rest on.

"Probably not. Ready to go get a cast?"

Lorelai was wearing jeans, put Luke had pulled them up to take a peek at her leg before moving her. It was bruised black and blue already, and swelling enough that Luke couldn't pull the denim pant leg up very much. He was positive it was broken.

"Oh, yeah, that's exactly what I wanted to do on my day off."

Ignoring Lorelai's quip, Luke drove her to the hospital, where she did, indeed, have to get a cast. Lorelai chose an obnoxiously neon-pink shade for the cast, naturally.

And once home, Lorelai let Rory decorate the cast. The two sat together on the couch, a pack of washable markers at Rory's side while she worked.

"Mama, you shoulda picked a different color. This pink is hard to work with!"

"Well, sorry! Pink was the only cute color they had. Should I have gotten the mud brown one? Or the yellow one that looked like pee?"

Rory wrinkled her nose and shook her head. "That's gross."

"I agree. That's why I picked pink."

Rory looked past her mother to the kitchen, where Luke was mashed potatoes to go with a roast Sookie had brought over. When she caught Luke's eye, she glanced at her mother and then rolled her eyes exaggeratedly, making Luke chuckle.

"I wanna take a picture of your cast when I'm done," Rory told Lorelai, working on what Lorelai guessed was supposed to be a butterfly. Someone named Sookie had bought Rory a Polaroid camera for her last birthday, and Rory had been obsessed with taking pictures since.

There was a whole stack of shots of blurry plaid courtesy of Luke fleeing every time Rory tried to capture a photo of him.

"For all the film I have to buy for that camera, one of your pictures better make it into National Geographic."

Rory and Luke often read National Geographic issues together—but _only_ after Luke has looked through them himself first. He had once made the mistake of not taking a look first, and there had been a photo of naked tribe members deep in South America.

The issue had left Rory giggling and Luke blushing the most amazing shade of ruby red Lorelai had ever seen.

"If it does, Bootsy'll have to finally give me magazines for free like you always try to make him."

When Rory was done with her doodles, she signed her name at the bottom: Rroy. She hadn't yet mastered the idea that the two r's in her name didn't have to go side-by-side.

After a little more begging, Lorelai agreed to let Rory take a Polaroid photo of her mother in her leg cast.

Rory took _several_ photos, as quickly as she could, and proceeded to pass them out to townsfolk for months afterwards. Mia, Taylor, Kirk, Lane, people Rory had never met at Luke's Diner…it seemed like Rory gave everyone a Polaroid. She kept them in a little purple plastic purse she carried everywhere.

" _You're_ the one who told her to shoot for National Geographic," Luke said with a chuckle each time Lorelai looked aghast as Rory handed out one of the Polaroids.


	24. Introducing Michel Gerard

Due to Lorelai's broken leg, and the fact that she had to use crutches because of said broken leg, Mia didn't think it was the greatest idea to have Lorelai continue working as a maid.

"I know you just broke your leg, honey, and that certainly isn't lucky, but there is a little bit of luck in this. One of our front desk workers quit recently. This leaves a great place to put you in, since you can sit at the front desk whereas you can't really sit while doing maid work. And I know Michel will be happy to have someone else handle phone calls."

Lorelai had heard a little about Michel before. Her work at the Inn didn't allow her to cross paths with many coworkers, save for her fellow maids. She only saw Sookie every day because she made a point to stop by the kitchen on her breaks.

Michel, though, she had never met. All she knew of Michel was that he was French and apparently not the most pleasant to be around, though he was extremely efficient at his job. Mia praised him all the time, saying she wasn't sure how the Inn had run before she found Michel.

"Come along," Mia told Lorelai. "I'll introduce the two of you."

Lorelai hobbled along behind Mia. She hated the crutches. She and Rory had tied pink taffeta bows to each crutch, and Luke had added extra padding to top when, after the first day, Lorelai was left with purple bruises underneath her arms from using the crutches.

The front parlor was not a place Lorelai usually saw in the middle of the day. Usually the maids cleaned in there either in the early morning or late at night, so seeing it full of people and bustling with noise was a new sight to her.

And at the fancy front desk, which Lorelai had dusted countless times, was a young black man in a well-tailored, dove gray suit.

"No, I am sorry, we are all booked on the fifteenth. Yes, I am sure! Of course I checked! Why would I tell you that we are all booked if we are not? If I did that, then there would be less money made, wouldn't it? And why would I want that? I work here. If it wasn't booked, then I would tell you that, so you would come here and spend money which would go into my paycheck."

His accent was thick enough that it left Mia shaking her head.

"I'm never quite sure what he is saying, to be honest. But he does keep the books running like a well-oiled machine, so I don't question it too much."

With an eye roll, Michel put the phone down and turned toward Mia, a smile replacing the scowl on his face.

"Mia, you look lovely today. What are you doing up here in the front, with all of us common people?"

Mia gave Michel a smile that looked a little unsure to Lorelai.

"Michel, this is Lorelai Gilmore. She is one of our maids. As you can see, she's had a bit of an accident and has broken her leg. Lorelai has a young daughter, and I don't want her to be put out of work, so I have decided that she will sit at the front desk with you and field phone calls."

Michel gave Lorelai a once over. Lorelai had forgone her maid's uniform on that day, as she didn't think a dress and hose were very appropriate attire for her current condition and means of mobility. Instead she was wearing a Bangles t-shirt and sweatpants. She knew it far from work attire, but there wasn't much she could do considering only stretchy things fit over the bulky cast.

"Well, it is a good thing she will only be answering the phones. No one can see you over a telephone. But if it keeps me from having to talk to the general public, I will give it a try."

Lorelai gave Michel what she hoped was a seething glare, though Mia's smile was still on her face. Obviously Mia really _couldn't_ understand Michel.

"Wonderful! Thank you, Michel. I know that under your guidance, Lorelai will learn quickly. I think she will be a great help to you, especially since Janette has left us."

Mia brought a spare chair from the dining room and set it behind the front desk for Lorelai. Once she was seated, she could only be seen from the chest up, so Lorelai didn't think her outfit would be as big of a deal as Michel made it seem.

That idea apparently didn't occur to Michel, as he sniffed at Lorelai and said, "Perhaps tomorrow you can wear a nice blouse, if you have one, rather than a T-shirt advertising a girl band that is not even that good."

Lorelai gave the idea of punching Michel a few seconds of thought, but she pushed it aside. Besides, Michel had walked away from her to pull a leather-bound book off of a shelf behind them.

"As you are a gimp, I will put the reservation book where you can reach it. It is basically a glorified calendar. If a person calls asking to make a reservation, check the book. If there is a time available, write it down. If not, give them three choices of other times and see if they would like to take another one. If somebody calls for any other reason than making a reservation, give the phone to me and I will see if the call needs to be taken to Mia."

Michel gave Lorelai a sharp look. "Is that simple enough, or shall I repeat it?"

"I think that will suffice, Charles." Lorelai was referencing Charles VI, the mad king of France. The reference was lost on Michel, though, as he looked appalled.

"Did you also break your head? Mia told you, my name is Michel."

"Gottcha," Lorelai said with an eye roll of her own once Michel turned away from her to welcome some guests.

This, Lorelai thought, is going to be a wonderful six weeks.


	25. Six Weeks of Michel

**Week One:**

For Lorelai's second day of sitting on the front desk, she ditched the Bangles t-shirt but not the sweatpants. There was just no way around it. None of her jeans could make the passage over the cast, and thought it was a balmy spring, Lorelai wasn't brave enough to try a dress on crutches.

Rather than a band t-shirt, she wore a silky, soft violet blouse that she thought made her eyes pop. Lorelai took it a step further and pulled her hair back into a bun. She hoped that her upper half would make up for the black sweat pants and the on Converse sneaker she was able to wear. As an extra good measure, she even applied the _only_ shade of lipstick she had that her mother had ever approved of.

The hot pink of her cast poked out of the bottom of the sweatpants on the other side.

Of course, though, Lorelai's efforts were not enough to impress the sour Michel.

"I almost miss the terrible band t-shirt. It really is a good thing you can only be seen from the waist up. Your take on dressy-casual is horrific."

Lorelai rolled her eyes. "Are all French people this bitchy?"

She had muttered it to herself, quietly, but to Lorelai's surprise, Michel heard her.

"We have been this bitchy since Louis and Marie Antoinette sat on our thrones. It is a hard thing to get over, the financial and crippling ruin of a country. The bitterness is hard to shake."

Michel said this all while never looking up from the book of receipts he was flipping through.

"Lobbing off heads doesn't do anything to help with the pain?"

"Surprisingly, no. Unfortunately, millions of dollars did not spout from Marie Antoinette's neck after the guillotine was dropped. Only blood."

Lucky for Lorelai, her new position as Answerer of the Phones started on a Thursday, so the first week was only two days long. With her new position came a new schedule: Mondays through Fridays, with the weekends off.

Apparently Michel loved his weekends as much as he loved being crabby with people.

 **Week Two:**

"I swear, he's just like you, but French and wearing high-end suits," Lorelai told Luke after work midway through the second week. Even though all Lorelai did at work now was sit—except for when she snuck off to the kitchen during her breaks—Luke insisted she prop her leg on a small mountain of pillows every day.

"I'm sure you meant no offense by that," Luke called from the kitchen. He had let Rory choose what he should cook for dinner, and in classic small child fashion, she had picked hotdogs and macaroni.

Luke was making the cheese sauce for the macaroni for scratch, ignoring the box of Craft Mac & Cheese Rory had set beside the stove for him.

"None at all, sweetums. While _your_ grumpiness is endearing and obviously wooing to women, _Michel's_ grumpiness just makes me want to stab him in the eye with his fancy fountain pen."

Just then Rory came skipping out of her room. She had paint smeared on her cheeks, left over from her day at preschool.

"Luke, can I have a piece of fudge? Pretty please with sugar and gumdrops and chocolate sprinkles on top?"

"Just that sentence gave me diabetes," Lorelai heard Luke say. But she also knew that Luke had taken a piece of the chocolate fudge from the tin Babette had brought over. Babette had felt so bad about Lorelai's leg that she made a huge batch of fudge for the girls. Luke was rationing it out to them, so it wouldn't be gone in a day.

Lorelai smiled to the sound of Rory skipping back to her bedroom.

"If Michel is such a jerk, why don't you just ignore him? You know, try not talking for a change."

"Luke Danes, when in your life have you ever ignored Taylor for being a jerk to you?"

Lorelai had him there, and she knew it.

 **Week Three:**

One morning while Lorelai drew doodles on a scrap piece of paper and Michel staunchly ignored her presence, Sookie showed up to the front desk with a plate of crepes.

"Happy birthday, Michel!" Sookie said in a singsong voice, holding the chocolate crepes up high. "I only used _dark chocolate_ , because I know it's supposed to be healthier, and as you can see, the fruit-to-crepe ratio is skewed heavily in favor of the fruit, so eating this one, itty-bitty chocolate crepe followed by all this fruit absolutely will not throw your diet into a tailspin."

Lorelai looked up from her doodles in surprise. While she often snuck away to the kitchen to get a bite of Sookie's food as a pick-me-up while dealing with Michel, it never occurred to her that Sookie and Michel could be friends.

Michel took the plate from Sookie, examining the food. "There is no syrup and no powdered sugar, so I think, for once, you are right. Thank you, Sookie."

Sookie clapped her hands, obviously pleased with Michel's approval of the food. "I knew one day I would bring you food you couldn't sniff at!"

"If you do not stop gloating, I will throw a fit and send it back," Michel warned.

Once Sookie went back to her kitchen, Lorelai turned to Michel. "Today is your birthday? Why didn't I know that?"

"Have you ever been introduced to Darwin?" Michel asked, skewering a raspberry on his fork.

"As in Charles Darwin?"

"Yes. There is a phenomenon called Darwinism, after Charles Darwin, where the weak or stupid die out. The fact that you broke your leg from falling off a ladder while attempting to clean rain gutters, which you had never done before, and had no knowledge about, gives you a strike against you in Darwinism. Why would I tell you when my birthday is when I have no expectation that you will live long enough to see it next year?"

"Do they have a special finishing school in France where they teach you how to ooze sass and insults?"

"I will never tell."

 **Week Four:**

"Is that a new issue?" Michel asked. Lorelai wasn't used to Michel speaking to her directly, so it took her a moment to respond. When she looked up from her magazine, it was to see Michel staring expectantly at her.

"Oh, yeah, it is. Why, are you itching to see what Emilio Estevez is up to this week?"

"I can see Celine Dion on the cover. I love her. May I borrow that to peruse her article?"

Dumbfounded, Lorelai nodded, and flipped through the magazine until she reached the centerfold, which held a two-page spread of Celine. She handed the magazine across the desk to Michel.

Lorelai had to lean in her chair a little, because of course Michel couldn't be bothered to bridge the distance on his end, but she was still happy. For once Michel had spoken to her in a way that didn't involve putting her down.

 **Week Five:**

With the rate that Michel was speaking, Lorelai was surprised that the phone hadn't caught on fire. When the Frenchman got angry, his accent got thicker, and a small vein in his temple began to throb. There was also teeth grinding, on the rare moments Michel wasn't speaking.

Lorelai watched all of this with amusement. When, finally, Michel moved behind Lorelai to slam the phone onto its receiver, he let out a long sigh.

"If somebody _that_ stupid ever calls here again, do not give me the phone. Set it on fire, drop it in a vat of acid, rip the wiring from the wall. I do not care. Just do not give it to me."

 **Week Six:**

The Thursday of the sixth week working on the front desk, Lorelai got her cast removed. When she came into work that day, it was on her own two legs and dressed in her maid's uniform.

"Where are your crutches? And your painful outfits?" Michel asked, looking up from the desk in surprise. Lorelai had developed a habit of using the front door when she arrived at work, rather than the back as she used to.

"Oh, well, bones heal. That's what mine did, and apparently they don't let you keep the cast and crutches once that happens."

Michel stared at her, his shocked expression still in place. Lorelai couldn't be sure, as he said it in a mumble, but she thought he said, "This will not do."

Lorelai had never seen Michel run, not even when, during the second week, there had been a heated argument between two of the guests in the dining room. But now Michel wasn't quite running, but he was moving more quickly than his usual leisurely pace as he rushed out from behind his desk.

Unsure of what to do, Lorelai stood in the foyer. She had no idea what had prompted Michel's reaction. Then, when the phone rang, Lorelai moved behind the desk without even thinking about it.

She had just finished writing in a new reservation when Michel returned, with Mia in tow.

"He's in a tizzy, I'm not quite sure what about, dear. I think I made out your name, but that accent…" Mia whispered to Lorelai.

"Tell Mia you don't want to be a maid anymore and you want to work here, at the front desk, with me. It's a raise in salary and you won't have to wear that terrible shade of gray that completely washes you out anymore."

Lorelai was stunned for several seconds, long enough for Mia to speak again.

"Now, Michel, I hope that you didn't say—" she began, but Lorelai cut her off, turning to Mia.

"I was wondering, Mia, if maybe, since the position is open, I could stay here on the front desk? Instead of going back to being a maid? It was Michel's idea. He asked if I would consider it."

Now it was Mia's turn to be surprised. "Well, dear, I hadn't thought of that idea, and I'm ashamed Michel beat me to it. That is a wonderful idea, Michel, and very kind. I'm not sure anyone would have survived your interview process anyway. Lorelai, why don't you go home and change and I'll do up the paperwork for the change in payroll? Surely you can handle the desk by yourself until Lorelai returns, Michel?"

"I will be fine," he said to Mia. Once she left, Michel turned to Lorelai, "I know you just got over your gimp condition, but do not take your sweet time in getting back here. I need you to keep answering that damn phone, for the sake of my sanity."

The weird morning left Lorelai smiling as she walked back out the Inn door.


	26. Rory Gilmore's First Day

Even though Rory went to preschool, she had always told Lorelai and Luke that it 'wasn't real school'.

"Kindergarten is real school," she would tell them. "Preschool is just practice."

Real school was something that Rory absolutely could not wait for. All that summer, it was the only thing she talked about.

"I hope Lane is in my class," she said at least once a week from the time preschool let out. When Liz and Jess came for their summer visit—it had quickly become tradition—Rory about talked Jess' ear off with her excitement about kindergarten.

"Aren't you excited?" She asked Jess. Rory had grown since the last time the two had seen each other, and she and Jess were just about the same height that summer.

Jess had shrugged, bit the bottom of his ice cream cone, and drank what was left of his ice cream from the hole he created. "I dunno why I have to go. I can read already."

"So can I! But you go to school to learn more than just to read."

"But if you know how to read, then you can learn anything you want. You don't gotta have someone else tell it to you. You can just read it."

Rory had rolled her eyes, a habit she had developed from her mother, but immediately followed it with a hug. When Jess had seen Rory roll her eyes, his mouth had dropped into a frown.

"You'll be the smartest one there," Rory told him before promptly changing the subject. "Show me your loose tooth again."

Even Jess' lack of enthusiasm didn't put a damper on Rory's excitement. When the day drew nearer, she became obsessed with things like school supplies, which backpack she wanted, and what she would wear that first day.

It was two weeks before school was even set to start, and Rory had already arranged her scissors, crayons, glue sticks, pencils, and erasers in the little plastic box she would be keeping in her cubby.

"She does know kindergarten is only half a day long, doesn't she?" Luke whispered to Lorelai as the two stood in the doorway of Rory's bedroom, watching her carefully write her own name on her school supplies in Sharpie marker.

She had a scrap piece of paper she kept lifting to her face, because she hadn't yet mastered how to spell 'Gilmore'. Lorelai had written their surname out for the little girl to copy.

"She doesn't believe me. She thinks I made it up, because I told her it made me sad that she's already big enough to go to kindergarten."

Rory—and Lane, thank God—were in the morning class for kindergarten. Stars Hollow was so small that there were only two kindergarten classes, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. After the morning class let out at lunch, Babette had agreed to watch Rory until Lorelai got off of work.

As for her first day of school outfit, Rory decided on a denim skirt, polka-dot tights, and a Hello Kitty t-shirt. Whereas Rory thought the last bit of summer was _dragging_ , and that she would _never_ actually get to kindergarten, Lorelai thought it was going too fast.

"Are you going to be sad tomorrow?" Luke asked Lorelai, watching Rory draw at one of the diner tables. Lorelai was sitting at the counter, talking to Luke while he worked. Tomorrow was going to be Rory's first day of school.

"I'll probably be crying buckets. You still want me to bring her here before I drop her off?"

"I didn't spend fifteen minutes arguing with Taylor to give me fresh blueberries for her first day of school French toast tomorrow for nothing."

Lorelai nodded, turning to watch Rory as she colored. She was drawing a picture for Jess; she had already asked Luke to mail it for her once she was done.

In the morning, Rory was up before Lorelai. She had already dressed herself, and she had her backpack waiting on the couch downstairs. Rory jumped on top of Lorelai to wake her up, her messy brown hair flying all over.

"I think you forgot a step when you were getting ready," Lorelai told her, taking in Rory's Perfect First Day Outfit.

"I don't know how to do French braids," Rory told Lorelai seriously.

"Well, let's make you some braids, then." Rory smiled and ran from the room, returning not long after with a comb, hairspray, hair ties, and ribbons in her hands. While Rory prattled on about her excitement, Lorelai parted and braided her hair, finishing each braid off with big pink bows that matched the one Hello Kitty wore on Rory's shirt.

"You're not even a little bit sad to be so big?"

"Noooo! I wanna keep getting bigger!"

"Well, tough luck, because tonight I'm gonna start tying bricks to your head."

Rory giggled wildly before skipping out of the room to go inspect herself in the upstairs bathroom. When she returned again, it was with her backpack and her Polaroid camera.

"I don't think they let you take that to school," Lorelai told her. Rory was still obsessed with taking photos of everything.

"It's for before school. So we can take pictures together."

When the girls got to Luke's, one of the tables had a pink tablecloth on it and balloons tied to one of the chairs. Rory's French toast and a big glass of chocolate milk were already waiting for her.

"Luuuuuuuke!" Rory called for him, the same way she had since she was a baby. Luke poked his head around the doorway that led to the kitchen and smiled at her. He was busy with orders, so he couldn't leave the kitchen yet.

But once he was able to, he was greeted with a very excited Rory who only had one question on her mind. "Will you walk to school with us?"

Luke looked around the diner, already full with costumers. He was torn. On the one hand, he couldn't really leave the diner with all of these people in there. But on the other, Luke wasn't sure he could say no to Rory's pleading blue eyes and big smile.

"Luke, honey, walk with the girl to school. I can keep the rebel rousers at bay while you're gone," Miss Patty said from the next table over, winking at the trio over her newspaper.

"Okay…But don't go in my kitchen."

"I don't have a death wish, love."

So on her first day of school, Rory walked with Lorelai holding her hand on one side and Luke holding her hand on the other. In a similar fashion, this was how Rory met her teacher.

"This is my Mama and this is my Luke," Rory told her teacher with a big smile. And then she asked her teacher if she would take a picture of the three of them with her Polaroid camera.

That Polaroid photo, with Rory in the middle, her face sandwiched by Lorelai's and Luke's on either side, was immediately hung up on the corkboard in Rory's room as soon as she got home from school.


	27. Is This a Sleepover? Without Me?

Lucky for Luke and Lorelai, Rory is thoroughly Lorelai's daughter. Rory, much like her mother, was _not_ a morning person.

Luke, on the other hand, had been a morning person his whole life. He also ran a diner that opened early enough in the morning for pretty much anyone in Stars Hollow to catch some breakfast.

This was perfect for Luke to sneak out of Lorelai's house early in the morning without Rory's knowledge. While he and Lorelai had been dating for a while at that point, neither of them felt the need to complicate it by letting Rory know that Luke spent more than a few nights in her mother's upstairs bedroom.

The set up was flawless for a long time. Until one early morning, earlier even than Luke's before dawn wake up, Rory wakes up feeling more than a little sick. She had just started kindergarten and already there was a stomach bug going around the school.

With an unsettled tummy and tears on her face, Rory climbed the stairs to her mother's bedroom. Lorelai's bedroom door _used_ to squeak, but Luke had fixed it with WD-40, so when Rory pushed against it, it swung open silently.

Rory's socks padded her footsteps so that she, too, moved silently as she inched closer to her mother. Lorelai didn't stir as Rory grabbed two handfuls of comforter and pulled herself onto the bed, rolling her body over her mother's.

It wasn't until she landed on top of him that Rory even realized Luke was there.

The soft thud of Rory's little weight on his chest woke Luke out of his sleep. Groggily, he caught on to Rory and settled in the space between himself and Lorelai before sitting up.

"Rory!" He whispered in surprise. "What are you doing in here?"

Even in the dark, Luke could see her pale face and flushed cheeks. He pushed the little girl's bangs back and placed his hand on her forehead, surprised at the heat he felt radiating off of it.

"Luke, my tummy doesn't feel good." Rory's voice sounded like the baby voice she had lost not long ago. Her arms wrapped around her middle and big blue eyes looked sadly up at Luke.

Reaching across Rory, Luke took hold of Lorelai's shoulder and gave it a solid shake.

"Time is it?" Lorelai asked groggily, clutching to sleep while one hand fumbled in the dark for her alarm clock.

"Three, or something like that. I don't know. Lorelai, Rory is sick."

 _That_ made Lorelai sit straight up.

"How do you know that?" She asked before she realized Rory was sitting in the bed between the two of them.

Lorelai turned her bedside lamp on, filling the room with light and revealing the fact that Rory's face was wet and tear-stained. Her hair hung in strings, damp from her fever.

"Rory, what's wrong, baby?" Lorelai asked, but she didn't get the answer she was anticipating. Suddenly Rory's cheeks ballooned outward and her hands flew up to cover her mouth.

Reacting quicker than Lorelai, Luke scooped Rory out of the bed and ran her to the bathroom, Lorelai on his heels. He got Rory there just in time, before she could throw up all over the two of them.

"Does that answer your question?" Luke asked, his own stomach turning as Rory emptied hers.

When Rory was done, she sat down on the bathroom floor beside the toilet and tilted her head back to look at her mom and Luke. Throwing up just that once seemed to have an immediate effect; already some of the color was coming back to Rory's face.

"Were you guys having a sleepover?" Rory asked, her voice small and raspy. The question almost made Lorelai burst out laughing. Luke's horrified look he sent her didn't help, either.

"A sleepover? Honey, why are you worried about something like that? You just threw up."

"It was a sleepover, huh?" Rory's lips quivered. "Why wasn't I invited?"

Lorelai sighed, bending down to lift Rory off the floor. "How about we get you some medicine, and then you can come up with us and finish the sleepover?"

Rory nodded, going limp against her mother. Lorelai motioned with her head for Luke to follow them downstairs to the kitchen, where Lorelai had the medicine.

Lucky for both Luke and Lorelai, Luke was not the kind of guy to sleep nude or even just in his boxers. He always wore an old t-shirt and a pair of pajama bottoms, which saved them from Rory's interruption being terribly awkward as well as filled with puke.

Once Rory had her medicine, the trio headed back upstairs. Rory insisted on being in the middle of her mother and Luke, like she had been before the trip to the bathroom. She was out like a light once she was tucked between them.

"A _sleepover_ ," Lorelai whispered to Luke with a smile. She leaned forward and kissed him quickly before turning off the light.

Luke smiled and shook his head before balancing himself on his end of the bed. Already Rory had sprawled out in her sleep, dominating the majority of the bed.


	28. Gilmores in the Wild

Once spring—and warmer weather—hit Stars Hollow, Luke got the idea to take Lorelai and Rory camping for the weekend.

Initially, Lorelai was all for it, mostly because it meant she got to go shopping. The hiking boots she bought for herself and Rory were a bright, almost neon pink. Lorelai also bought the two of them plaid shirts, a la Luke's usual wear, and a floppy sunhat for Rory.

The allure of s'mores over an actual fire, not Sookie's gas stove at the Inn, was enough to sell Rory on the idea.

But the _packing_ leading up to this weekend trip made no sense to Lorelai.

"Why do I have to buy unscented deodorant? I want to look at the nature, not smell like it." Lorelai asked Luke, looking over his shoulder at the shopping list he was writing. She was glad, however, to see toilet paper was included on the list. She had insisted that Luke take them to a camp ground that had port-a-potties.

"Because deodorant is scented and the scent attracts bears. Do you want to smell like a meal to a bear?"

Lorelai's mouth set into a pout. "So I guess lotion and perfume are out, too, then?"

"Bears, Lorelai. Bears."

"What about a pic-a-nic basket?" Lorelai asked, mimicking Yogi Bear. "Can we bring that? I hear those attract bears, too."

"If you really want your berry scented deodorant, bring it. But you're sleeping in a quarantined bear-food tent."

"Ha-ha. Very funny."

Besides her qualms about what was and wasn't allowed when camping, Lorelai was excited if only because Rory was so excited. Luke had bought her a miniature fishing pole and had promised to teach her while they were out there.

They set out so early on Saturday morning that Lorelai didn't even bother trying to wake Rory up. After consuming four cups of coffee, she dressed Rory in her sleep and settled her in the middle seat of Luke's truck.

Even after all the caffeine, Lorelai herself wasn't entirely sure she was awake. Only Luke was chipper as the trio drove down the dark streets of Stars Hollow and headed out of town.

By the time they reached the beginning of the hiking trail, Rory had awoken and was happily eating the powdered donuts Luke had gotten for her. Luke parked the truck, instructing Lorelai to carry the currently empty cooler while he got the huge camping pack he had packed the night before.

"We gotta walk?" Rory asked, her face settling into a pout as she climbed down from the truck. Her cheeks were coated in powdered sugar from her on-the-go breakfast.

"Remember, that's why you got the pretty new boots. It won't hurt you to walk a little." Both Lorelai and Luke had spoiled Rory by carrying her pretty regularly, despite the fact that she was five.

"Well, is it a lot of walking?" Rory fell in step between the two, staring uncertainly at the trees before her as they entered the woods. "Camping is in a forest?"

"It's not far, and our camping is. We're going to a meadow. That's where we'll put our tent," Luke explained to her.

"And after everything is all set up and fishing is over, Luke will make a fire so you can make s'mores."

Being reminded of the s'mores put a little more pep in Rory's step. Luke was right, it didn't take them long to reach the little meadow. It must have been a popular camping site, as there was already a rock-rimmed circle cleared for a fire. While Luke set up the tent, Lorelai enlisted Rory's help in putting all of the food into the cooler.

Lorelai had to admit it was pretty in the meadow. New, soft green spring leaves had sprung on all the trees around them and multi-colored wildflowers bobbed their petals in the gentle breeze.

Growing up in Hartford, she hadn't even known that pieces of Connecticut like this existed. She felt a sudden surge of gratefulness for Luke, that Rory would know that there were special places outside of grand halls and expensive clothing.

Lorelai picked a few of the wildflowers and stuck the stems through the braids she'd made in Rory's hair the night before.

"Ready to go fishing?" Luke asked from behind them, startling Lorelai a little. The tent had looked like a serious mess when Luke took it out, but somehow he was already done setting it up.

Rory jumped up and down excitedly, holding her hand out for Luke to give her the fishing rod. Lorelai plopped Rory's sunhat on her head just as Rory took Luke's hand, tugging on him even though she had no idea where this lake was that Luke wanted to fish from.

* * *

The fishing ended with Rory soaked nearly head to toe, due to her ignoring Luke's instructions to stay on the solid ground of the lakeshore and not to venture onto the mossy rocks in the shallow water.

Luke built up a big bonfire and sat Rory in front of it to dry her out while he cleaned the fish and Lorelai made faces.

"I think I like fish better when I don't have to watch it being prepared," Lorelai said, scrunching up her face as flakes flew off the fish.

"Better give Rory a marshmallow to distract her, or she'll never eat the fish if she sees me cut them open."

"Luke Danes is suggesting candy _before_ dinner? This camping stuff is so scandalous."

The marshmallow, which Rory declared to be 'more gooey' than the ones she had made at the Inn, was the perfect distraction. Which was good, because even Lorelai wasn't sure her growling stomach would be enough to make her eat the fish after she saw the blood squirt when Luke sunk his knife into one of them.

But as usual, Lorelai's stomach won out once she smelled the cooking fish and the seasoned vegetables Luke had put into little packets he made out of tinfoil.

"Cooking doesn't attract bears?" Lorelai asked. It was already late afternoon and the sunlight had become hazy.

"Fire scares wild animals off."

They probably let Rory stay up too late. Neither of them were sure, really. Lorelai hadn't worn a watch and Luke's had fallen victim to the lake during their fishing.

Rory was nearly asleep where she sat, still roasting marshmallows even though she was far past full. She liked to watch them melt and become slouched, losing their cylindrical shape as the outside turned to something like black cobblestone.

The sky hung heavy with starts by the time Luke put the fire out and the three crawled into their tent.

Just like the night she was sick, Rory insisted on sleeping between the two. Somehow during the night, she managed to work herself sideways so that her head rested on Lorelai's stomach and her feet on Luke's.

Luke usually liked to go camping alone. Not even Rachel had ever wanted to go, probably because Luke's favorite spot wasn't very exotic. He thought it felt like home, though.

Even more so with Lorelai's sleeping form beside him and the light weight of Rory's feet resting on top of him.


	29. Green Stripey Thingies

Luke was characteristically a man of few words. Lorelai's talkative nature usually brought him out of his shell, though sometimes Luke found himself debating if he should hold his tongue or let loose the snarky remark in his mind.

Almost always, these snarky remarks are aimed at Taylor. But sometimes a wayward remark will find its way to someone else.

Such as the late-spring day when Lorelai walked into the diner with chunks of green running through her dark hair.

By this point in time, the residents of Stars Hollow were used to Lorelai. She no longer drew attention everywhere she went, much to her pleasure. The change in her hair, though, had begun to draw some attention, though nobody had been brave enough to comment on it yet.

That is until she sat at the counter and Luke looked up from the list of stock he was writing for the diner.

"Why do you have green stripey thingies in your hair?" Luke asked, his eyebrows drawing together. Lorelai made a point of meeting his eye to give him a decidedly annoyed look before sighing.

"They weren't _supposed_ to be green," she admitted. "They were supposed to be caramel-colored highlights. But something went wrong while Sookie was dyeing it."

"You let Sookie dye your hair? Were you drunk?" Sookie, as everyone knew, was notoriously accident prone. Sometimes these accidents extended to others, such as the case with Lorelai's interesting hair.

"Sadly, no. Rory told me my hair reminds her of Dr. Seuss. She even called me Dr. Seuss Head."

Though he knew it wasn't the reaction Lorelai was looking for, Luke couldn't help but to laugh.

"I like the green stripey things," Luke tried to follow up his laughter.

"You're a liar, but I appreciate it. Can Dr. Seuss Head have a burger and milkshake?"

"Only if Dr. Seuss Head is committed to dying before she hits forty, considering Dr. Seuss Head has been eating burgers and milkshakes all week."

"Dr. Seuss Head is nothing if not committed."


	30. Polka-Spots

"Mama, look, I got polka-spots on my belly," Rory walked into Lorelai's room with her pajama top pulled over her head, exposing her ivory belly covered in red spots. "Itchy polka-spots."

Lorelai turned from her mirror to look at Rory and then instantly scooped her up into her arms.

"Oh, no," Lorelai muttered to herself. "You can't go to school with polka-spots. Those are called chicken pox. And you can't scratch them, either."

"But they itch!"

"I know they do, sweets, but if you scratch them they will just get itchier. Like a mosquito bite."

Lorelai put Rory back to bed and tucked her covers in tight around her, to keep her from scratching, while she called Mia to let her know that she couldn't come in to work. She knew Michel would be thrilled to have to answer his own phones, but what else could she do? It wouldn't be fair to sidle Babette with a sick kid.

Her next call was to Babette, both to tell her that Rory was sick and to ask if she had oatmeal or calamine lotion.

"I got the lotion, but I'm sorry about the oatmeal, sugar. The stuff doesn't agree with Morrey's stomach, so I don't keep it in the house."

Lorelai thanked her and switched tactics, deciding to call Luke.

"Of course," Luke had told her, confusion in his voice. "What do you want oatmeal for? You don't even like oatmeal. You call me an old man and threaten to buy me hearing aids every time I eat it."

"I need it to make an oatmeal bath for Rory. She has the chicken pox."

"What?!" Luke asked. Lorelai could hear him shushing Kirk in the background. "Is she okay? Do you need help?"

"I think she'll be fine. She keeps calling them 'polka-spots'. Some dinner later would be much appreciated though."

"You got it. Anything you want. I'll bring the oatmeal then, too."

Lorelai's fourth call of the morning was to Stars Hollow Elementary, to let them know that they would have one less kindergartener for a few days.

"Mama!" Rory called from her bedroom. "I don't like these blankets. They make the polka-spots itchier."

Lorelai lathered Rory in Babette's calamine lotion and dressed her in one of her own t-shirts. She thought it would be better to have her in looser fabric that wouldn't irritate the chicken pox spots.

"Are you hungry?" She asked Rory after taking her temperature. Rory only shook her head sadly.

"I feel yucky."

"I know you do, baby. You're gonna feel yucky for a few days."

"I don't like it," Rory whined pitifully. To see Rory's little cheeks stained pink with fever, and new spots seeming to appear every minute, it nearly broke Lorelai's heart.

Lorelai gave Rory a dose of medicine to help with her fever and let her pull her pillows and blankets into the living room so she could lay on the couch and watch TV. That was Rory's plan, anyway, though she soon fell asleep.

While Rory slept, Lorelai fretted around the house. She walked the floors. She put away laundry. She walked back to the living room every five minutes, to check on Rory.

And then Lorelai sat down at the kitchen table and made a fifth phone call. One she didn't expect she would be making anytime soon.

"Can I speak to Emily Gilmore, please?" Lorelai asked when the maid answered the phone. She let out a sigh of relief when the maid didn't ask who was calling. Knowing her mother, that maid would probably be fired for that misstep.

"Hello?" Emily's voice came through the phone line.

"Mom," Lorelai said, taking a deep breath in order to keep her voice steady.

"Lorelai?" Emily sounded surprised and then irritated. "What's the occasion? I didn't realize it was the holiday season so soon."

"Rory's sick," Lorelai blurted out. Luckily for her, that had the effect she wanted. "She's got the chicken pox and I'm not entirely sure what I'm supposed to do for her. I don't remember anything when I had them other than you kept making me put calamine lotion on and you made me take a gross oatmeal bath."

Emily was quiet for longer than anticipated. Lorelai was almost sure she had hung up when she spoke again.

"Keep her fever low. Make her some soup. Put socks or gloves on her hands, so she doesn't scratch the spots. If she scratches them too much, they'll leave scars."

"Thank you, Mom," Lorelai said quietly.

Funny how a 'polka-spot' covered belly could turn your whole world upside down.


	31. Daddy Dearest

"She's nearly _six,_ " Luke said in an angry whisper when Lorelai broke the news to him that Christopher was going to be in Hartford in a few weeks, and that he wanted to see Rory. "He hasn't seen her since she was a baby."

Lorelai waited for Rory to fall asleep to tell Luke. The only problem with her plan was that Rory fell asleep sprawled across Luke's lap while the three of them were watching a movie together. Rory's little head bobbed up and down with each breath Luke took.

"I know…" Lorelai whispered back to him. She was sitting with a pillow hugged to her chest, though she would have liked to be hugging Rory there. But she had chosen to sit with Luke, which Lorelai didn't mind. She loved that Rory loved Luke, but for some reason, she felt like she needed to be holding her baby close right then.

"Why the hell would he want to see her now?"

Lorelai shrugged. "Guilt, maybe?"

Sometimes Rory spoke to Chris on the phone. He still regularly sent postcards and cards for holidays and Rory's birthday. Now that Rory could read, he sent letters, too. However, Luke was right; this was the first time since Rory was a baby that Chris had asked to see her.

Luke blew his breath, making Rory stir a little and snuggle closer against him. "It took him six years to feel guilty about not seeing his kid?"

Lorelai shrugged again. At one point in her life, she could have explained Chris with the same ease that she could describe the back of her own hand. Luke was right, though. It had been almost six years, and in the span of those years, Lorelai was no longer the high school girl who knew her boyfriend so well.

A small piece of her hated to admit it, but Christopher was a stranger to her now.

"Will you come with us?" Lorelai asked instead. She had already decided to go.

She didn't see it as a favor to Chris, the largely absent father. She saw it as a favor to Rory, who had a right to know her father. Even at five, Lorelai knew Rory was capable of making her own opinion of people, including the father she had yet to meet.

"Don't you think that would be weird?" Luke asked. The place he held in Rory's life was a delicate one. He knew that.

"Why would it be weird? Rory talks about you all the time when Christopher calls."

Neither of them knew it, but the little girl sleeping on Luke's chest made a point to bring Luke up in conversation with her father. Rory was too young herself to understand that a little something called _spite_ was the cause of the hot, angry feeling in her belly when she threw Luke into her father's face.

"I think I'll skip out on meeting Daddy Dearest," Luke said. His whispered voice certainly did not match the tension in his jaw. Luke's words were soon followed by a sigh. "This time, anyway. It should be about Rory the first time."

Lorelai felt a swell of appreciation for Luke as she leaned forward and placed a kiss on his stubbly cheek.

* * *

The day Rory met Daddy Dearest, as Luke nicknamed him, Lorelai braided her hair into two pigtails and tied them off with ribbons. She let Rory pick her own outfit, which ended up being a sparkly blue tulle skirt, black and white striped t-shirt, and her purple rain boots.

"Do you think he'll like me?" Rory asked from her booster seat as Lorelai drove.

Luke let Lorelai borrow his truck for the trip, as Lorelai didn't have a car yet. She didn't have much use for one—her whole life was in Stars Hollow, and in Stars Hollow everything was in walking distance.

"It's bad enough you have to go see him," Luke grumbled, handing her the keys, "you shouldn't have to be harassed on public transit on top of it."

Lorelai gave Rory what she hoped was a happy and reassuring smile. "Of course he'll like you, sweets. How could he not?"

Rory tugged on the ends of her braids and shrugged, turning her head to watch out the window.

"Have I ever been to Hartford?"

"You used to live there, when you were a tiny baby."

Rory watched as trees whizzed by and gave way to concrete sidewalks, buildings, and shops. Her tiny button nose wrinkled.

"I think I like Stars Hollow better."

"Amen, sister."

Chris actually asked if he could meet the girls a little outside of Hartford, at a café it would be unlikely either set of their parents would happen upon them.

The only thing that made Lorelai's skin itch more than seeing Christopher again after so long was adding Richard and Emily or Strobe and Francine to the mix.

After finding the café and putting the truck in park, Lorelai didn't immediately leave the truck. She sat quietly for a few moments, looking through the large windows to see if she could spot the boy she used to know.

While she was distracted, Rory unbuckled herself and slid across the seat of the truck to tug on her mother's sleeve.

"We better go, Mama," Rory told her seriously. "Luke said cars gobble you up if you take too long getting out of them, 'member?"

Luke had, indeed, told Rory that once when she was taking her sweet time. Lorelai laughed and straightened the flowered headband Rory had added to her hair.

"You're right, we don't want Luke's grumpy old man truck to swallow us."

Lorelai took Rory's hand as they walked across the parking lot and opened the door to the small café. While she hadn't been able to find him through the window, there Chris was, clear as day.

He was sitting towards the back, looking anxiously at the watch he wore. Lorelai noticed he was wearing a Metallica t-shirt and a sports jacket, and it almost made her laugh. Almost.

Rory was looking around the café with wide eyes. Christopher hadn't noticed them yet, not even as they approached and Rory's rubber rain boots squeaked on the tile floor.

"Long time no see, friend," Lorelai managed to get out before her throat felt too tight and her stomach to uneasy to speak again.

Christopher looked up from his watch and smiled. It hurt Lorelai's heart to see that it was exactly like Rory's smile.

"Hey, Lor!" Chris said, his voice just a little too loud. No one had called her 'Lor' in such a long time. Lorelai closed her eyes for a moment to steady herself.

"Hey, Chris," she said, much quieter.

Rory was watching Chris with huge blue eyes, her head tilted back to look at him. Christopher dropped down on his knees in front of her, so that they were the same height.

"Hi, kid!"

"My name's not 'kid'," Rory reminded him in that serious, adult way she could sometimes affect. "It's Rory."

"I know that," Christopher told her, but Lorelai noticed the smile waver ever so slightly.

He didn't hug her or swing her up onto his shoulders or take her hands and spin her in a circle while she giggled wildly. Now that he was there, in front of Lorelai, it became so obvious that Christopher wasn't anything like Luke.

And she knew he never would be. Not with Rory. Too much time had passed.

Still, she watched at Rory politely ate the cookies and milk Christopher bought her. Rory showed her father how she had learned to write her whole name, all the letters in the alphabet, and her numbers to 20. She pulled a copy of a Babysitter's Club chapter book from Lorelai's purse and read Christopher a few pages in her clear little voice.

"She's smart," Christopher observed.

"She puts all of us common folk to shame, that's for sure."

Christopher offered to take Rory to the park after she finished her cookies. When he offered his hand to her, she slipped hers inside, because she didn't want to be mean.

She wouldn't tell Lorelai, but Rory thought holding Christopher's hand felt not quite right. They were softer than Luke's hands, sure, but Rory didn't think they fit. But he was her dad, and you're supposed to like your dad, right?

Rory did like him. She liked him fine. But she liked Luke better, even if she wouldn't tell.

Lorelai and Chris sat on a bench while Rory threw bird feed into a lake for some ducks.

"I noticed Luke didn't come," Christopher said quietly.

"Yeah, well. He has the diner to run." Lorelai knew she didn't have to explain any aspect of Luke to Chris, because Rory kept him thoroughly up to date.

"Don't you think I should meet him? I mean, it sounds like Rory spends a lot of time with him from her stories."

Lorelai resisted the urge to glare at him, but only just so. She wanted to scream at him, to ask him why he thought he had any right when he had been AWOL for so long.

She wanted to ask him who had worn a princess crown on Rory's birthday, who had made her gelato from scratch because she wanted to try it, who had argued with Taylor Doose until the stubborn man relented and let Rory pet each and every kitten and puppy on Pet Adoption Day even though she couldn't get one.

The answer to those things, and countless others, was _Luke_ not Christopher.

Instead, Lorelai said only, "You will, once you make it back to our side of the world again."

"You think he'll still be around then?" Christopher asked, unwarranted jealousy evident in his face.

"I know he will."

Rory didn't have to tell Lorelai that she liked Luke better. Lorelai saw it when they returned to Stars Hollow and walked into the diner. She saw it in the relief that flooded Rory's face as she walked right behind the counter and wrapped herself around Luke's leg even though he was on the phone and had a plate in his other hand so that he couldn't pick her up yet.

"How was your trip?" Luke asked Rory once he had hung up the phone, served the plate he held, and swung her up into his arms.

Rory only wrapped her arms around his neck and laid her head on his shoulder.

"I missed you."


	32. Rachel

Lorelai wasn't the only one with a lingering ex. It was summertime, the Fourth of July. Lorelai was finishing her shift at the Inn, but Luke had closed the diner early and picked Rory up from Babette's to take her to the parade.

Rory was dressed to the nines for the holiday: a red bandana tied in her hair, blue sunglasses, and a white cotton dress.

"Well, are you ready, Miss America?" Luke had teased her. He was wearing his usual uniform of jeans, a plaid shirt, and his backwards baseball cap.

" _I_ am," Rory had said, standing on Babette's porch with a hand on her hip. When she pulled her sunglasses down to look at Luke, she looked so much like a miniature Lorelai that both Luke and Babette couldn't help but laugh.

" _You_ aren't ready, Luke! You're not wearing any red, white, _or_ blue." Rory was right. Luke's hat was black and his plaid shirt was in shades of gray and green. "You have to change before we go to the parade."

Babette chuckled and shook her head behind Rory. "I hope you enjoy this mess you've gotten yourself into with these two girls, Luke, honey."

Luke picked Rory up and slung her over his shoulder—"Like a sack of potatoes. Stinky, rotten potatoes," he always teased her. Rory giggled while Luke carried her to the trunk.

"Will it really bother you that much if I'm not wearing red, white, and blue?" Luke asked her as he turned the key in the ignition.

" _Yes._ Mama's gonna be wearing it. We all gotta match, Luke."

Luke rolled his eyes, but he stopped at the diner and took Rory upstairs to rifle through his closet until she found a shirt she deemed acceptable.

"It's only got red and white, but your jeans are blue, so I guess that counts." Once Luke had Rory's approval, he took her outside to sit in the shade of the diner and wait for the parade. Already it seemed like all of Stars Hollow was crowding the sidewalks for the event.

Rory was sitting on Luke's shoulders, so that she could see over the crowd. Every so often, Luke would feel a pat on the top of his head as Rory shouted excitedly.

"Look at the pretty horses, Luke!"

"Luke, look, there's Lane!" Poor little Lane Kim waved shyly from the church's float, which declared sinners would burn in hell the same way fireworks burned in the sky, while Rory waved wildly.

When Luke felt a hand on his arm, he turned slightly so as not to topple Rory from his shoulders. He expected to see Lorelai, but instead he saw blonde curls and green eyes.

"Rachel?" Luke asked. He was shocked, to say the least. He hadn't expected to see Rachel in Stars Hollow again.

She had certainly made a big enough fuss about never returning when she left.

Rachel smiled and raised her camera as if in way of explanation. "I'm doing a photo story on small town life. I thought the Stars Hollow Fourth of July Jubilee would be a good piece for it."

She spoke to Luke, but her eyes were raised above them, to where Rory sat oblivious to everything going on outside of the parade.

"Is she yours?" The question surprised Luke. He was so used to everybody knowing everything in Stars Hollow.

He almost said _yes_ , but he swallowed the word. Rory may as well have been his, but she wasn't.

"No, she's my girlfriend's daughter. Her name's Rory."

"Rory," Rachel smiled as she said the name. "Cute name. She's a pretty little girl. Where's the girlfriend?"

"Lorelai. She's, uh, at work. She works for Mia, at the Inn."

"She must not be from here, huh?" Rachel asked. "I don't recognize her name."

Before Luke could answer, he felt another pat on his head.

"Silly Luke, the parade is over! We can go to the carnival and wait for Mama now."

Luke hadn't even noticed the streets clear and the sidewalk crowds wander off to the square. As Luke swung Rory down off of his shoulders, Rachel was already starting to walk away.

"I'll leave you two to the carnival," Rachel said, a smile on her lips but her eyes said something else as they flicked between Luke and Rory and their clasped hands.

"Who was that?" Rory asked, practically skipping as they crossed the street.

"Just a friend. Do you want a snow-cone?" Luke didn't want to talk about Rachel, especially not with Rory.

"Yeah!" Rory said, punching the air with her free hand, all thoughts about the pretty woman talking to her Luke gone.

But while Rory was quick to forget, Luke knew the rest of Stars Hollow would not follow the little girl's suit.


	33. Who the Hell is Elle MacPherson?

News of Rachel spread through Stars Hollow just as quickly as Luke was afraid they would. And, of course, she stayed for longer than just the Fourth of July Jubilee. Luke had hoped she would leave soon after.

No, she was still there three weeks later when Liz and Jess came for their annual summer visit.

Rory and Jess played on Lorelai's front lawn one Saturday while Lorelai, Sookie, and Liz sip lemonade. Jess was trying to show Rory how to blow huge bubbles, but Rory didn't seem to have the patience. Instead, while Jess was distracted, Rory blew a long stream of bubbles onto his cheek and laughed as they all popped.

"Somehow I haven't seen her yet, but Rory has," Lorelai was telling Sookie and Liz. "Rory said she has 'princess' hair."

"When did Rory see her?!" Sookie asked.

"At the parade during the Jubilee. I was still at work, remember? Luke took her to see the parade and they ran into this Rachel chick."

"This probably isn't the right thing to tell you, but I thought Luke was going to marry that girl," Liz admitted. Last summer, she had a pixie cut from her hair growing out of a decision to shave her head. This summer, her hair was twisted into braids all over her scalp.

Lorelai thought Liz was a little odd, but she liked her. She just worried what her eccentric lifestyle would mean for Jess growing up.

"The whole town did!" Sookie agreed. Lorelai sent a glare her way, but Sookie only shrugged. "It's true. We were practically holding our breath waiting for Luke to propose."

"What _does_ she look like?" Lorelai asked, watching as Rory and Jess abandoned their bubbles for a game of tag. "I need more to go on than princess hair."

"She's pretty," Sookie said and Liz nodded her agreement. "Like, really, _really_ pretty."

"What kind of pretty?"

"Like…an Elle MacPherson kind of pretty." Sookie said, nodding to herself. But this time Liz was shaking her head.

"Elle MacPherson? I don't think I would go that far. I think Lorelai's prettier. You and my big brother match, with your dark hair and blue eyes."

Even though Liz disagreed with Sookie, the words stuck with Lorelai. An _Elle MacPherson_ kind of pretty? That was a serious kind of pretty. That was a pretty Lorelai wasn't sure she could compete with.

Despite the summer heat, Lorelai felt a chill run through her.

She tried to tell herself that it was nothing. And she knew, logically, it really was.

Lorelai didn't think she really had a reason or right to worry about Luke. Especially when he was so good and understanding about Christopher…not that Christopher had ever even been in the same town as Luke. But still.

It was nothing. She knew she needed to squash it.

* * *

On Luke's end, he wasn't getting an easy time of things from the townspeople.

"So is this it with you and Lorelai?" Kirk had asked, point-blank, apropos of nothing. Luke leaned across the diner counter and smacked Kirk on the head.

" _No_ , Kirk. Isn't it your nap time yet?"

"Not until two o'clock."

Luke walked to the far wall and reached up until he could reach the clock. He pulled it down and turned it over, changing the time until the hands pointed at 2 o'clock. Then he walked to Kirk, gave him the clock, and pointed to the door.

"But my watch says it's 12:30!"

"Well, the diner runs on Luke time, and in Luke time it's 2:00. Now get out of here with your questions."

The rest of the town was not so bold—or stupid—as Kirk. But Luke wasn't unaware of the looks they shot him any time Rachel walked by the diner.

Luke was glad, at least, that Rachel had so far had the good graces not to come inside.

* * *

Lorelai didn't see Rachel until she came to the Inn one afternoon to take some photographs of it for Mia. Of course, much to Lorelai's annoyance, Rachel seemed to be a beloved former member of the town.

She was in the middle of a phone call with their linen provider when Michel elbowed her hard in the ribs.

"I know you love your diets and everything, but you really need some padding on those bones," Lorelai griped at her friend, her hand covering the mouthpiece of the phone.

" _Look_ ," Michel whispered. "It is that girl you've been obsessed with for the past month."

Lorelai put the phone back in the receiver, hanging it up. She had been on hold anyway.

"Are you sure?" Lorelai whispered back to Michel.

"Well, Mia called her 'Rachel', so I used what brain cells I still have left from this job to assume that it must be her."

Lorelai tried not to be obvious as she took a peek. Rachel had her back to them, but she decided Rory's assessment of Rachel's long, blonde curls was fair. It was like princess hair. She felt her breath hitch as Rachel turned her head and Lorelai caught a glance at her face.

Sookie was right. Liz was wrong. Rachel _was_ an Elle MacPherson kind of pretty.

* * *

Lorelai didn't mean to let it turn into an argument. Luke and Lorelai hadn't even _had_ an argument until that summer day. Lorelai would have liked to blame it on the heat, if she could have.

"Who the hell is Elle MacPherson?!" Luke had asked. They were inside, but Jess and Rory were outside. The two kids could be seen from the living room window. "I don't even know who that is."

"She's hot, that's what she is! You never even told me you had a hot ex-girlfriend."

"I did tell you about Rachel! I told you she was an old girlfriend and she left town and we broke up because I wouldn't go with her!"

"But you never said she was beautiful!"

Luke hung his head and ran his hands down the length of it. Then he took a deep breath and looked Lorelai right in the eye.

"Don't yell at me more for saying this, but, Lorelai, you're being ridiculous."

She would have liked to yell at him more, but she knew that he was right. Lorelai had known it was ridiculous before the words ever flowed out of her mouth like a river she had no hope of damming.

Instead she dropped her head, too.

"I know," she said so pitifully that it hurt Luke's heart. He stepped forward and pulled her into a hug.

"You know I'm all in, with you and Rory." He murmured against her hair. Lorelai nodded against her chest. "And even if Rory does think Rachel has princess hair, that's not going to change anything."

Lorelai couldn't help but smile. She had asked her mother to curl her hair in tight ringlets that morning, like Rachel's hair.

"I'm sorry," Lorelai said, her words muffled by Luke's shirt.

"It's okay. You're hotter than Elle MacPherson."

"You don't even know who that is!"

"Doesn't matter. You're hotter, now hush."


	34. Father's Day

While school was in session, Rory had learned about Mother's Day. Her class made little painted hearts for their moms. But Rory knew if there was a Mother's Day, there must be a Father's Day, too.

The only problem was that she didn't know when it was. Until the first day of summer, when Lorelai brought Rory to work and let her color on the floor behind the desk. Michel had grumbled at the inconvenience about having to step around her, but Rory had only giggled at him.

When Michel stepped away from the desk to help a guest, Rory had pulled herself up into his vacated chair to look at the calendar on his part of the desk. And there, in red letters, on a Sunday in June, were the words 'Father's Day'.

 _June 18_ _th_ _, June 18_ _th_ _, June 18_ _th_ Rory repeated in her head, so she wouldn't forget before she got the chance to write it on her own calendar at home. _June 18_ _th_ _._

Rory knew she wanted to make a card for Luke. As far as she knew, no one ever gave Luke cards. Plus it wasn't like she had any money to spend, anyway.

Now, if nothing else, Rory was her mother's daughter. So when Luke came over that night and Rory said 'Luke, I need to take a print of your hand', Luke wasn't even surprised.

"Don't tell me you're working for Taylor, too," Luke teased her, making her smile. Kirk had been out and about trying to convince people to let him fingerprint them for Taylor. Someone had apparently been sneaking fresh fruit from the displays in Doose's Market and Taylor was trying to find out who since, according to Taylor, Stars Hollow PD wasn't doing anything about it.

"I wouldn't work for Taylor," Rory said with a laugh. "He's too grumpy, even if I'm used to it hanging out with you."

Rory painted Luke's hand a sky blue, using paint from her paint set. Then she pressed his hand to a piece of paper, carefully making sure she got a full print.

"You must be starting up a rival to the FBI then, huh? Going right over Taylor's grumpy head."

"Can you do that? Rival the FBI?" Rory asked, scrutinizing the print she had taken.

"I'm not sure, but you could try. Gilmore girls can do anything, you know." That was something that Lorelai told Rory, but Luke had borrowed it since he thought it was true, too.

"Yeah, we are pretty great," Rory deemed the print perfect and wiped Luke's hand clean with one of her mom's makeup removing wipes.

"You're not going to tell me what it's for, are you?" He asked, but Rory shook her head and smiled before running off with Luke's painted handprint.

In her bedroom, Rory made a print of her own hand in purple glitter paint. She placed her little hand so that it overlapped Luke's a little. She liked the way they looked together. Once they dried, she cut them out carefully to glue to the front of her card.

Rory wasn't sure she had been so excited for anything in her life.

* * *

Luke definitely forgot about the day that Rory took a print of his hand. The little girl did quirky things all the time. Life with Lorelai and Rory had definitely made Luke not question their antics.

So, when Rory presented him with an envelope and a huge smile on June 18th, he was surprised to say the least.

"What is this?" He asked, turning the envelope over in his hands. Rory only smiled wider, so Luke turned his gaze to Lorelai.

But Lorelai only shrugged. "Beats me. She wouldn't even let me touch it."

The girls had just walked into the diner. Well, Lorelai had walked. Rory had ran inside and climbed on top of a stool, nearly vaulting over the counter in order to get the envelope to Luke.

"You're not going to give me hints or anything?"

Rory shook her head, her smile turning into a mischievous little smirk. She couldn't believe neither her mom nor Luke had realized what the date was.

Luke shrugged and got a butter knife from the kitchen to open the envelope with. He slit the paper easily.

Now, when Rory made the card, she was torn between what she should write. If anyone ever bothered to ask her opinion, which she had noticed with just a touch of scorn that hardly anyone asked for little kids' opinions, she would have told them that Luke was her dad.

Not Christopher.

Luke.

But no one had. And so when she made the card, she wasn't sure if she should write 'Happy Father's Day' on it or if it would be better to make up a new holiday and write 'Happy Luke Day'. He was, for sure, her Luke after all. Plus, she called him 'Luke', not 'Dad'.

So she went with Happy Luke Day, and she wrote Luke's name with the bubble letters her mom had taught her how to make. Inside the bubble letters, she made a plaid pattern, just like the flannel shirts her Luke liked to wear.

All of this, Luke saw once he pulled the card out of the envelope.

Now, Rory was almost certain Luke did not cry. She had never seen it before, not even when Luke dropped his hammer on his foot once and broke one of his toes. It just didn't happen.

If Rory had money to bet with, though, she would almost bet that she saw some tears in Luke's eyes. None ever fell down his cheeks, though, so Rory couldn't be one hundred percent sure.

Luke handed Lorelai the card over Rory's head and then held his arms out to Rory. There was a rule at the diner—Rory wasn't supposed to sit on the counter. His own rule was broken when Luke lifted Rory over the counter and her _shoes_ grazed across it.

That made Rory giggle a little, because Luke hadn't even noticed what he done! That meant her card must have been really, _really_ good.

Luke hugged her so tight that she almost couldn't breathe, but when she looked back at her mom, Lorelai was crying.

"Why's Mama crying, Luke?" Rory asked, her little eyebrows drawing together. Luke hugged her again.

"She's not sad, I promise. They're happy tears. You did good, kid."

* * *

A/N: It's been awhile... my computer died! And I had to get a new one! It feels good to be back, though! :)


	35. Mountains Out of Anthills

In mid-spring, Luke had noticed a small anthill in the front lawn. He had left it alone, figuring it wouldn't last long. By the time late summer had rolled around, Luke realized how wrong he had been. It grew to be the biggest Luke had ever seen, more of an ant _town_ than just a little hole in the ground.

There were several holes, and probably millions of ants. He walked by them every single day, because it was right near the spot where he parked his truck. At least once a week, one of the little ants found its way into his shoes and bit him.

Luke decided it was time to get rid of them.

"What's that?" Lorelai asked. She was sitting at the kitchen table with Rory, helping her with a letter she was writing to Jess. Rory wrote a letter to Jess every week. She wrote letters to Christopher only every other month.

Luke looked down at the plastic jug in his hand and furrowed his brow. "You've never seen ant poison before?"

"You can't kill the ants!" Rory yelled before her mother could answer.

"Yeah," Lorelai backed the little girl up. "We've bonded with them."

Luke looked at the pair like they were crazy. It wasn't the only time he had ever done it. By his own math, Luke figured he must have given them the same look at least twenty times a day.

"You can't bond with ants."

"I tell them 'good morning' every day when I leave for work," Lorelai pointed out, like it was a valid point.

"Sometimes if Babette lets me eat my lunch outside, I'll break up some food into crumbs for them and put it near their anthill," Rory added.

So _that_ is how the anthill had gotten so big. They apparently had a steady food source from none other than Rory.

"They'll come into the house," Luke said. "We'll get an infestation."

"That's why I feed them," Rory piped up. "They don't have a reason to come inside if they have plenty of food."

"And now they're used to getting food from humans, so they'll trust you and take that poison. When they eat it, their little tummies will hurt and they'll die and wonder what they did to make the giants that used to bring them food angry."

Luke was so flustered by Lorelai's little scenario that he didn't even answer at first. He only blinked slowly, his face incredulous beneath his baseball cap.

"Do you realize how easy it would be to have the two of you committed?" He asked, shaking his head. He left the kitchen and returned the poison to the high shelf closet he kept it on, where Rory couldn't get her hands on it.

Luke wondered what he ever did in his life for the two people he cared for the most to drive him crazy so regularly.


	36. Early Morning Goodbyes are the Hardest

For Lorelai Gilmore, the hardest part of the mornings was no longer waking up. That _used_ to be the hardest thing in the world for her. Even when she was a little girl, her mother used to have to pull Lorelai from her bed and stand her on her feet to get the child to wake up.

In her teenage years and forward, Lorelai turned to coffee to wake herself up for the day.

Since Luke came into her life, though, Lorelai found that his 3 a.m. wake up was harder than her own 6:45 a.m. wakeup.

"Kirk will survive without blueberry pancakes," Lorelai mumbled against the warm skin of Luke's shoulder. When he rolled away from her to get out of bed, Lorelai rolled with him and wrapped her arms around him.

"Other people besides Kirk eat at the diner," Luke reminded her. He turned back toward her. Luke was already completely awake—long before he ran the diner, he was used to waking up early to help his father with the hardware store. "Other people will expect it to be open."

"Screw all of them," Lorelai's voice was slurred with sleep. Luke pushed some of her dark hair away from her face and kissed her forehead.

"No diner means no money," Luke reminded her.

"You have plenty of money," Lorelai mumbled. This was technically true, but it wasn't something the young Luke Danes liked to flaunt. "Besides, you're warm. You can stay five more minutes."

"Your concept of 'five more minutes' and everyone else's concept of 'five more minutes' are two completely different things, Lorelai."

"Mmmm." Despite her sleepy, whole-hearted protests, Lorelai was starting to drift back into sleep.

Trying not to laugh at the little routine Lorelai kept up every day, Luke untangled himself from her arms and slid out of bed. As soon as he stood up, Lorelai moved into the warm spot that Luke left behind.

While Lorelai slept, Luke made his way to the shower, knowing well enough that this morning routine wasn't actually over yet. After finishing his shower, dressing, and quietly leaving the bedroom, Luke made his way downstairs.

Rory was already waiting for him in the kitchen, rubbing her eyes and working on a coloring book.

"You know you could be sleeping, kid," Luke said, tousling her hair as he walked by.

"I like to eat breakfast with you, Luke," Rory told him sweetly, her words punctuated by a yawn.

"What do you want this morning?" Luke asked, opening the fridge. He had long stopped questioning Rory insisting on getting up before dawn with him, only to sleep for a few more hours, and get up again with her mom.

"Can we have omelets? And chocolate milk?"

"Sure thing."

Luke arranged Rory's plate so that it showed a face with orange slices for eyes and an omelet smile. He filled her glass with chocolate milk and stuck her favorite crazy straw in it.

Every morning, by the time Rory had finished her first breakfast of the day, her head would be drooping with drowsiness. Somehow she always held on just long enough for Luke to finish his plate.

Then Luke would scoop the little girl from her chair and carry her back to her room. After tucking her into bed, Luke would do the dishes and quietly slip out of the house where his girl lay sleeping.

Luke used to think rolling out of bed at 3 a.m. every morning was hard on its own. He never imagined that it would be even harder once Lorelai and Rory entered his life.


	37. A Dirge for a Hamster

"Is it six feet deep, though?" Rory peeked into the hole Luke had dug in the ground from underneath her wide-brimmed, black hat.

Luke leaned against his shovel and held back a sigh. This was such a common theme in his life, ever since he had met Lorelai, that he didn't really know why he was ever surprised by things anymore.

"Go get the tape measurer and check," Luke told the little girl beside him. While she ran back to the house, her long black skirt trailed behind her.

Eyes rolling towards the sky, Luke wondered just how he had found himself preparing a grave for a _hamster_ on a Tuesday afternoon. Rory hadn't even had the hamster for long—a week, two weeks, tops.

He had told Lorelai they shouldn't take Rory to the town square on the day that the town had an animal adoption event. Lorelai had insisted Rory was old enough for a pet. Luke thought a hamster was a little too high maintenance for a first pet. He had pushed for a goldfish, or a cat. Something low maintenance, or at least able to care for itself for the most part.

But as soon as Rory had laid her eyes on that little orange splotched hamster, she had fallen in love. Her heart was set on it. Both Luke and Lorelai had a hard— _impossible—_ time telling her 'no'.

Rory named the little thing Pumpkin. She was diligent about making sure the hamster had food and water every morning and that the woodchips lining the bottom of the cage were clean. Despite all these efforts, Rory had come home earlier that day to find the hamster dead in its cage.

So, of course, she asked Luke to quickly build a casket for the animal. This request came after Rory had spent an hour and a half in her room, crying her little blue eyes out. Luke had _almost_ laughed despite himself, but Lorelai's sharp elbow in his side stopped it in his throat. Which led to Luke slapping together a tiny, plywood coffin.

Then Rory asked Luke to dig a grave for the coffin to go in.

"Like a real one," Rory had emphasized. "A proper one."

As Luke dug the little hole, Rory had enlisted Lorelai's help in getting dressed for the funeral. Lucky for Luke, he had already gotten dressed in a black and gray flannel that Rory had deemed appropriate for the funeral.

By the time Luke had finished digging, Lorelai and Rory had sauntered from the house clad in all black. Lorelai had been taxed with carrying the tiny coffin with the hamster inside, and Luke could tell from her face that she wasn't thrilled about it.

"This is madness," Luke whispered to his girlfriend while Rory was inside retrieving the tape measurer.

"It was her first pet," Lorelai defended, though Luke thought he could see a green tint to her cheeks as she peered down at the coffin in her hands. "Plus you know Rory's always been prone to dramatics."

"I can't imagine why," Luke teased. Lorelai was much the same way, even if she insisted Rory took it far beyond where she ever would.

"Let's just make this as quick as we possibly can. It's grab-bag night at Al's Pancake World. That always cheers her up."

"Great, so you're telling me I'll have to attend two more funerals before the night is over?"

Lorelai stuck her tongue out at Luke just as Rory walked up. She gave both of the adults a serious, reproachful look and shook her head. If the circumstances were different, Lorelai would have laughed at the overly-mature look on her little daughter's face.

"This is a serious matter," Rory reminded them. Not only did she have the tape measurer in her hand, but also her recorder. Luke groaned inwardly. Some idiot, otherwise known as Mrs. Barrett, had decided that every first grader in Stars Hollow needed to learn to play the recorder.

The stupid little plastic thing made a terrible high-pitched sound that set Luke's teeth on edge. It wasn't because Rory was bad at playing it, either. She was actually better at it than most of her classmates, as the recorder recital Stars Hollow Elementary held proved to be true. That's just the noise all of those stupid things made.

For God knows what reason, Mrs. Barrett had also decided that one of the songs the first graders should learn to play on the recorder was a funeral dirge. Naturally. What first grader _wouldn't_ want to learn to play such a sunshine-y song on the worst musical instrument ever made?

"You have a good eye, Luke," Rory assessed while measuring the hole he had dug. It was six feet deep exactly.

"Thanks?" Luke said, more as a question than a statement. Rory nodded to her mother. A slightly sick look still on her face, Lorelai gently lowered the hamster coffin into the ground. Rory raised the recorder to her lips and began to play an off-key, squeaky, funeral dirge.

 _This is a real test_ , Luke thought, keeping his face carefully blank so as not to expose how ridiculous he thought all of this was. He rested his head on his hands, propping himself against his shovel, trying his best not to betray himself.

When Lorelai's twinkling blue eyes caught his, though, he was almost done for. Luke had to quickly turn his laugh into a deep, hacking cough.

To both of their luck, Rory was so preoccupied with concentrating on her recorder that she didn't notice.

After what seemed like an eternity, Rory let Luke cover the hole with dirt and the funeral was over. The little girl perked up at the idea of going to Al's, but not enough to allow Lorelai to change out of her 'funeral' clothes.

"You were very stoic back there," Lorelai told Luke as the trio walked to the restaurant. She and Luke were walking side by side, Lorelai's hand tucked into the crook of his elbow. Rory was going ahead of them, making a hopscotch-like game of jumping on the dry parts of the sidewalk between the puddles of a recent rainstorm.

"It was pretty hard," Luke told her. "I'm surprised there were any dry eyes there."

"Us Gilmore girls are lucky to have such a strong man in our lives."

* * *

 **A/N:** You know, when I write these, it's just little ideas that pop into my head that I think are funny/cute/interesting. I really write all of these scenarios just to entertain myself (it's highly effective!), but I know YOU guys love it to. So, I think it would be fun if I wrote out some of your ideas! If there's something you would like to see, just PM me about it. I'll do the first 10 I get, maybe more depending on how many there are... This is just for fun, don't feel obligated! I thought it might make the stories a little more...engaging, maybe? Plus I've never written from someone else's prompt like this, so it's a challenge for me and my writing skills, too!


	38. Lovey Dovey Lorelai

Affectionate. Overly affectionate, at times.

That was a good way to describe Lorelai. Luke valued his life too much to ever use the word _clingy_ , after all.

Overly affectionate. He could probably get away with that one. Maybe.

All of this was not to say that Luke didn't _like_ it. He secretly loved it, no matter how much he grumbled and complained, because it reminded him of his own parents. When they were kids, their parents' affection had made Luke and Liz gag. After their mom died, they missed it more than they ever thought they would.

Now Luke had found it again with Lorelai.

He liked the way she would lazily and absent-mindedly play with the tufts of hair peeking out of the back of his ball cap.

Sometimes when they were holding hands, Lorelai would tuck her thumb close to his palm and trace the words 'I love you' onto his palm.

If they were watching a movie on the couch, Lorelai liked to curl herself up as close to him as possible.

During town meetings, she would rest her head on his shoulder when Taylor was boring her.

And Luke ate it all up, underneath his grumpy façade. He would never give Lorelai, or Sookie, or Babette and Miss Patty the satisfaction of knowing how much he loved it.

"Have I ever told you that you're my favorite?" Lorelai asked, wrapping her arms around his waist and resting her head on his back. Luke was in the middle of cooking dinner.

"You know, I don't think you have. In fact, I'm pretty surprised—I always pegged you as a Taylor Doose kind of girl," Luke teased her. He could imagine Lorelai's smirk, even though he couldn't see it.

"You're a funny man, Luke Danes. We need to get you on the comedy circuit, stat."

Rory was with Sookie, who had offered to babysit so Luke and Lorelai could have a date night. The funny thing about it, though, was that neither of them had managed to actually leave the house.

This was all Lorelai's idea. She had dressed up—her dark curls piled on top of her head with some piece falling loose and framing her face, clad in a slinky black dress and red lipstick painting her mouth. She had insisted Luke dress up, too. She had picked out the blue dress shirt that made his eyes vibrant under those dark lashes of his.

Lorelai had decided she wanted a night _in_ , mostly because the last few times she and Luke had been about to have sex, Rory had interrupted in some way or another.

She still had her arms around him when her hands started to drift lower. Luke's eyes fluttered shut.

"You know, Luke, we could always save dinner for after Rory gets home."

That was all the motivation Luke needed. He fumbled for a moment, trying to get the stove turned off while Lorelai's hands were already unbuckling his belt.

"I mean, if you insist." Luke lifted her into his arms, making Lorelai giggle before his lips met hers. Somehow, Luke managed to kiss her and walk the two of them toward the stairs at the same time.

He had to be able to see to actually go _up_ the stairs, but that was okay. While Luke climbed them, Lorelai occupied herself with undoing the buttons on that shirt she had carefully picked out for him.

By the time Luke laid her back on the bed, his shirt was gone. So were Lorelai's heels, kicked off somewhere on the stairs.

Lorelai pulled her hair from its up-do while Luke slipped the thin straps of her dress of her shoulders. As he slid it from her body, he was a little surprised to see Lorelai wasn't wearing anything _but_ that dress.

"This was your plan all along, wasn't it?" He asked, looking up to see the mischievous smile on her red lips.

"Maybe so." She shook her curly hair loose around her shoulders and Luke thought he just might die right then and there if he didn't have her immediately. He smiled back at her while Lorelai made a quick disposal of what remained of his clothing.

* * *

After, Lorelai carefully reapplied her lipstick and made sense of her hair again. Both she and Luke got dressed in their nice clothes again, though Luke's shirt definitely showed some tell-tale wrinkles.

They were at least _trying_ to keep up the guise that they had been on a proper date instead of spending the whole time in bed together. The two of them thought they were slick, too.

Sookie seemed none the wiser when Luke and Lorelai retrieved Rory. But when Luke lifted the little girl into his arms and carried her to his truck, she was more observant.

"Hey, Luke, why's your neck all red right here?" She asked, pointing with her finger.

Lorelai covered her mouth, which exactly matched the smudges left on Luke's neck, in order to smother a giggle. Luke went red in the face, his blush outdoing the lipstick evidence he wore.

"Oh, uh, I don't know," he mumbled. "I hadn't noticed."

* * *

 **A/N:** The inspiration for this first one came from a guest review, so unfortunately I do not know your name! But the review had the phrase 'lovey dovey Lorelai" in it, and, well... my mind ran from there!


	39. You're Not the One

It didn't happen often, but Lorelai and Michel were bored. The holidays had passed, and so had the big tourist boom that hit the Inn every year. Now, until the balmy spring weather and Taylor's yearly Blossom Jubilee rolled around, Lorelai in Michel were in for quite a few slow days.

"Anything good in those?" Lorelai asked. She didn't _want_ to be organizing the receipt book, but she thought she might fall asleep if she didn't find something to do. Michel was being stingy with his celebrity gossip magazines.

"Sound the alarm, you Americans are sick of French rolled jeans, even though they are truly an iconic style." Michel quipped, flipping the page of his magazine. "Looking homeless is in. They're calling it 'grunge'."

"So what color Doc Marten's do you want for Christmas?"

Michel gave her a piercing glare while she smiled in response. If it weren't for the interruption just seconds later, Michel probably would have torn into her.

"So what's a guy gotta do to get a room around here, Lor?"

The voice shocked her so much that she nearly dropped the receipt book entirely. Michel's reaction was much calmer, merely quirking an eyebrow at the stranger in front of him.

"Why don't you buy this man some of those hideous shoes for Christmas? He is obviously comfortable looking like he slept in a trash can, more so even than that lumberjack emulating diner owner you insist on keeping around." This was a direct dig at the man in front of the counter, clad in baggy jeans, a Lynyrd Skynyrd t-shirt, and a flannel shirt.

That man happened to be none other than Christopher Hayden. Luckily for Lorelai, the look of confusion on Christopher's face made it obvious that Michel's French accent had thrown him for a loop.

"Did that Frenchman just call me homeless?" He asked, while Michel made his way to the kitchen. Michel's greatest trick was disappearing to Sookie's kitchen when he didn't want to deal with certain guests, leaving Lorelai up front by herself.

"Michel's not one to move with the times. He's having a hard time coming to terms with the new grunge fashion plates," Lorelai grumbled. Her heart was pounding. _What was he doing here?_

Christopher had mentioned anything in any of his letters or phone calls to Rory.

"Life will leave him behind, then." Christopher was smiling too much, in Lorelai's opinion. How could he not tell how uncomfortable she was in that moment?

"What are you doing here?" Lorelai asked, not wanting to play games and preferring, instead, to cut to the chase.

That knocked the smile from Christopher's face swiftly. "I came to see Rory."

"Rory's at school. You missed the Christmas break by about ten days."

"She doesn't go to school day and night, does she?"

Lorelai had to resist the urge to roll her eyes. "No. She doesn't."

"And I want to meet Luke. What did the French guy call him? A diner owning lumberjack? Sounds like an interesting guy."

Lorelai was shaking with anger behind the counter. _Of course_ Christopher would pull something like this. No call, no warning. Show up at her work, where she can't really talk.

"So do you want a room with basic cable or pay-per-view options?" Lorelai practically threw the room key at him.

While Christopher hauled his bags upstairs—Lorelai didn't bother calling for concierge for him—she ran as quickly as she could in her high-heeled boots to the kitchen.

" _Michel_ ," Lorelai practically screamed. "Take the front desk, please! This is a coffee and best friend emergency."

Michel looked up lazily from his magazine. "If you insist."

"What's going on?" Sookie asked, looking up from the bowl of egg whites she was beating. When Michel had barged into the kitchen, she had told him that he had to sit quietly and that if he messed up her count and her egg whites came out too stiff, she would smother him with them.

But Lorelai got the best friend treatment.

"Christopher is here," Lorelai said miserably, hanging her head in her hands as she took a seat at Sookie's counter.

"What do you mean?!" Sookie asked. "Like, _here_? At the Independence Inn?"

"Yes! Oh, and don't worry! He didn't call or write or send a carrier pigeon or a smoke signal, _nothing!_ He's just…here!"

Sookie passed her bowl of egg whites off to someone else on the kitchen staff. She took a seat beside Lorelai.

"You have to tell Luke," Sookie said. "What if he shows up to your house unannounced? And Luke is there, obviously, because he _lives_ there, and then…"

Sookie let her sentence drift away. Both of them knew that the situation Sookie was imagining would not be a good one.

"He wants to meet Luke," Lorelai said hopelessly. "This is going to be such a disaster."

"Oh, and Rory! What are you going to do with Rory?"

"Well, he says he's here to see her, and I can't really tell him no, can I?"

* * *

Lorelai ended up calling Luke to warn him about how their day, apparently, was going to go. Luke had been short on the phone, and that made Lorelai worry. They talked only long enough to work out a plan.

She tried to push it all aside. The nervousness, the fear. But Michel had to do most of the work that day, which of course annoyed him to no end.

Luke closed the diner early that day and picked Rory up from school. Neither Luke nor Lorelai wanted to take Christopher to the house, or anywhere in town. They decided it would be best if they ate dinner in the Inn's dining room.

 _Neutral ground_ , Luke had called it.

Rory looked so precious in her faux-fur winter hat and coat, walking hand in hand into the Inn's foyer with Luke. She was such a delicate little girl, like a tiny fairy. Lorelai didn't know how her spun-sugar daughter was able to survive all the craziness that was her young life.

But Rory let go of Luke's hand and made a beeline for the kitchen, where she knew Sookie would give her a snack.

"So where is he?" Luke asked, his blue eyes clouded over as they scanned around the Inn.

"Upstairs in his room, I guess. I called up there earlier and let him know what the plan was. I guess we'll see when he decides to grace us with his presence."

To Lorelai's total surprise, Christopher was on his best behavior at dinner. He shook Luke's hand. He took an interest in Rory, and what she was learning in school. Towards the end of it, Lorelai actually felt like she might be able to relax a little bit.

When it was over, Lorelai bundled Rory up in her winter gear and took her out to Luke's truck. Luke had told her to go ahead of him, and even though it made her stomach do flips to think of Luke and Christopher being alone together, Rory was tired. So out they went.

"See how excited she was to see me?" Christopher said to Luke. It was probably meant to come off in a casual, off-hand way. Unfortunately for Christopher, his not-so-subtle brag was obvious to Luke's ears.

"I don't know what you think you're doing here," Luke said before he could help himself. The cocky tone in Christopher's voice made Luke want to take a swing at him.

"What do you mean? I'm Rory's father. I have a right to see her."

"Are you sure about that?" Luke asked him. The two were standing at the bottom of the staircase. "Are you really sure that your Rory's father?"

"Are you really sure that your Rory's father?"

"What's that supposed to mean, tough guy? That you're Rory's dad and not me? Because last time I checked, I was there in Lor's bedroom when Rory was conceived."

Luke leaned in close to Christopher, to really make sure his words sunk in.

"I just want you to think about who's been there for her. Who walked her to school on her first day, who was there when she got the chicken pox, who dug a grave for a damn hamster because her first pet died. Ask yourself all of those questions, and the answer is going to be _me_ , not you."

"She'll never be yours. Not really. Neither of them will be. Not Rory, and not Lorelai either."

"You might want to call next time you want to see _our_ daughter. She might be yours biologically, but she's _mine_ in all the ways that she'll give a damn about when she's older."

Luke did not want that night to come to blows. He knew how much that would upset Lorelai and Rory both. So before he could think twice about how much he really wanted to punch Christopher in his now-red face, he turned and walked out of the Inn.

* * *

 **A/N:** This one is for SS8587, who left a review asking for some more Christopher/Luke power struggles in the realm of fatherhood. :)


	40. Everybody Hates Rory

In Luke's opinion, the only good thing to come out of Christopher's impromptu visit was that Rory seemed to be having fun. And that was all that really mattered, right?

Never mind the fact that when Rory insisted that they have dinner at the diner at least once, Christopher spent the whole time making a point to loudly introduce himself to every Stars Hollow resident that he was Rory's father.

Or when he insisted on picking Rory up from school. Luke and Lorelai had a routine—the school was just down the block from the diner. Every day once school was out, Luke would stand on the diner's porch and watch Rory make her way down the sidewalk to him. Then Rory would sit at the counter and chat with Luke and do her homework until Lorelai got off of work.

Luke didn't realize how much he looked forward to quizzing Rory on her spelling words in between orders until Christopher took it away from him for a week.

In short order, Christopher was driving Luke up the wall. Lorelai was on edge, too. Luke could sense it. So even though he would _love_ to vent to his best friend and girlfriend, he made sure he stayed tight-lipped and quiet.

He was itching for Christopher to leave town, though. If he heard him say 'Lor' one more time, Luke was liable to scratch his eyes out.

"Hey, Rory, you almost ready for dinner?" Luke poked his head into the little girl's bedroom. Usually Lorelai got Rory for dinner, since Luke always cooked, but Lorelai was upstairs trying to rearrange the guest book for the inn.

Michel had double booked a handful of days and blamed it on _ennui_. He left Lorelai to sort out the mess.

Pretty much every day after school, Rory would go to her room and read until dinner was ready. It wasn't unusual at all for her to be quiet as a mouse.

But what Luke found this time when he stuck his head in was Rory not reading, but crying. She was sitting on her bed, her pigtails stuck to her teary cheeks, hugging a stuffed elephant Jess had sent her for her last birthday.

"Rory…" Luke forgot the dinner on the stove entirely, rushing to the little girl. "Rory, what's wrong? Do you feel okay? Are you hurt?"

His hand was on her forehead, checking for fever, before Rory even had a chance to answer. Rory shook her head, her watery blue eyes looking up into his.

"You like me, right, Luke?"

"Of course I like you. Who wouldn't?"

Rory's face crumpled with fresh tears when she tried to answer Luke's question. She threw her elephant aside and threw herself at Luke. He felt her hot tears soak through his shirt.

"Rory, you're okay. What is this about?"

Through heaving breaths, Rory began to tell Luke about her day at school.

"Bridgette Waters asked who I was with yesterday because she me and Dad at the movies so I told her and she said that he must hate me then, because she had never seen him before so he can't live in Stars Hollow. And then she said you hate me too, because you live with us but you and Mama aren't married, but you're dating Mom so you must like her, so that means you have to hate me."

Rory said it all in a rush before tears overcame her again. Luke patted her hair softly, feeling like he had lost his footing. He had no idea what to do here.

One time, his little sister Liz was being bullied on the playground, so he had punched the little boy who was making fun of her right in the face. Somehow, he felt like punching Bridgette Waters wouldn't be the best solution.

"Nobody hates you, Rory." Luke swallowed. What he was about to say felt like hot acid in his mouth, because he disliked the thought of saying anything positive about Christopher. "Honey, your dad loves you. He just lives very far away, and he's busy because he helps out brand-new companies. That takes a lot of time. If he hated you, do you think he would write you letters and send you postcards, or that he would come all the way across the country to come see you?"

Rory shook her head. She was young, but she had a knack for seeing reason—when she was calm. Luke felt the little girl's breaths start to calm down.

"And I love you, too. Do you really think I would make all of you breakfast every day if I hated you? Or play cards with you after school? Or kick Kirk out of your favorite seat at the diner, even though he always tries to steal it?"

"I guess not…" Rory admitted. "But what am I supposed to do? Everyone except for Lane started singing 'Everyone hates Rory' at recess."

"Well, there are teachers on the playground at recess, right?" Rory nodded while Luke cupped her little face in his hand and dried her tears with a tissue. "When someone is being mean to you like that, you can tell your teachers, and they'll help you."

"But then they'll call me a tattle-tale," Rory said, her lower lip beginning to quiver again.

"Your teachers won't let them," Luke reassured her. "You told me, didn't you? It's important to tell adults when something bad like that happens."

"But Hank Thayer said he would punch me even though I'm a girl if I told."

That little tidbit angered Luke, and he said the next words without even thinking about it. "If Hank Thayer tries to hit you, you hit him back harder and tell your teacher I told you to."

Rory almost smiled at that, but it fell flat. "I don't want to go to school tomorrow."

"You don't have to," Luke said instantly. The crestfallen look on Rory's face was breaking his heart. "Tomorrow's the last day your dad is in town, right? Let's talk to him and your mom and see if you can stay home from school tomorrow and spend it with your dad instead."

 _That_ brought a big, bright smile to Rory's face. "Do you think Mama would let me?"

"I promise she will," he told her, and he meant it. He had every intention of telling Lorelai what Rory had relayed to him.

When a frazzled Lorelai asked Rory how school had been over dinner, Rory had told her a story about having a jump rope contest with Lane. Then she hit Lorelai with Luke's earlier promise.

"Luke said I can skip school tomorrow to hang out with Dad instead, Mama."

Lorelai almost choked on the wine Luke had given her to help her relax. She shot Luke a look that he liked to think was a little amused. "Oh, he did?"

"Yeah! If it's okay with you."

"It's okay with me if it's okay with your dad. I bet the two of you will have fun."

There was an unspoken question in Lorelai's eyes. _Later_ , Luke mouthed to her.

And later, once Rory was tucked into bed, Luke explained it all to Lorelai.

"Oh my God! I'm going to kill them!"

"You can't kill small children. It's frowned upon in the state of Connecticut."

"Then I'll make it look like accidents! I can't believe those little shits!"

"Kids can be mean," Luke said, reaching out to stop Lorelai in her pacing tracks. "Do you think I handled that okay?"

Luke's question stopped her in her tracks. "What do you mean? Of course you did! I mean, you told her she could skip school, which we probably shouldn't make a habit of, but besides that you did great."

"I just don't want to overstep any boundaries," Luke confessed. "It's different, with him actually here."

Lorelai didn't have to ask to know that 'him' meant Christopher. Rory was a good kid, so there was never any need for Luke to fill in the role of a disciplinarian. But he still acted as her parent regularly, helping her make decisions and granting permission for her to do certain things. Luke had always filled that role seamlessly, so much so, in fact, that Lorelai had never felt the need to talk about it.

"You still get a say," Lorelai told him. "Why wouldn't you get a stay? You're here. You see her every day. This is totally your territory, too. Did Christopher say something to you?"

"No," Luke defended this person he didn't even like for the second time that day. "But I don't want to make any trouble, either."

"Well, I might not be able to kill small children, but I will kill Chris if he tries to start something with you." Lorelai bent down and kissed Luke on the mouth. "Now where's the rest of that wine? Asshole children have made me stressed out all over again."

* * *

 **A/N:** Alexandria Elizabeth Cullen sent me quite a few good ideas that you'll see in the future, but here is their suggestion of how Luke would handle bullying. I kind of combined it with the theme of the last chapter... I hope you enjoy!


	41. Of Wet Grass and Feather Dusters

Rory sitting at the kitchen table working on her homework was not unusual in the household of Lorelai Gilmore and Luke Danes. What was unusual was for the little girl to be doing her homework with the aid of a feather duster.

"What's Rory doing?" Luke asked in a stage whisper that made Lorelai giggle. He had just walked into the kitchen moments before to get a drink, and he had come back with his eyebrows scrunched together under the edge of his baseball cap.

"Her homework, duh," Lorelai answered innocently. She knew exactly what Luke was referring too, but it was more fun to pretend not to. Luke was on to her, rolling his eyes at her.

"You know, sometimes I wonder why I talk to you," he teased, to which Lorelai smiled sweetly. She puckered her lips for a kiss and waited for Luke to bend down.

"Go watch," Lorelai told him once he had kissed her. Luke shrugged and walked back to the kitchen doorway. He stopped just inside of it, so that he could watch Rory without her knowing.

Luke watched as Rory erased something on her paper. Then she picked up the feather duster and swished it across the paper, getting rid of the eraser dust left behind from erasing. He felt his eyebrows scrunch together again—now he was even more confused than he had been the first time.

After watching Rory's routine a few more times, Luke returned to the living room where Lorelai sat watching TV.

"But…why?" Luke asked. He didn't need to say more than that. He knew Lorelai knew exactly what he meant.

Lorelai shrugged, not turning her face from her show. "She doesn't like the feeling of the little pieces of eraser left behind when you erase something. It makes her physically cringe. She won't knock it away with her hand."

"But…wouldn't blowing work?"

"Dirty!" Lorelai giggled. "There's still some left behind if she does that."

"So she decided to use your feather duster instead?"

When Lorelai had been promoted from being a maid to working at the front desk, Sookie had made her a special feather duster. It had pink-dyed feathers and the handle was bedazzled.

"It works, doesn't it?" Luke couldn't argue that point. He stood shaking his head to himself anyway.

"This is just like when she wouldn't walk on wet grass," Luke mumbled to him.

"What are you talking about?" Lorelai asked. Luke couldn't believe she didn't remember.

"Wet grass! She wouldn't touch it until she was three, remember? She would go damn near catatonic if you even suggested she walk across it herself. She had to be carried over it every single time."

"Oh, that's right!"

Luke was still shocked she didn't remember. The only reason Rory even started to walk across it was because Luke had taken his shoes and socks off and walked on wet grass barefoot in front of Rory to show her nothing would happen:

 _"See," Luke had said all those years ago. "I'm not dead."_

 _"Too brave, Luuuu," Rory had told him, her blue eyes huge in her face._

 _"It's not scary," he reassured her. "Especially if you're wearing shoes."_

 _Rory looked up at him skeptically. He reached his hands out to her and waited for her to take them._

 _"When you're wearing shoes, the grass can't even touch your feet. If I'm standing on it barefoot, don't you think you can take a step with shoes?"_

 _Rory was shaking her head, but unbeknownst to her, she was already standing on the wet grass. While Luke talked, he had gently pulled on her hands, guiding her to take a step forward._

 _"Well, you already are."_

 _Eyes about to pop out of her head, Rory looked down to see her feet on the grass. Then she looked up at Luke. Down to the grass. Up at Luke._

 _For just a moment, Luke thought his heart might stop as he waited for the cry he was sure would come. But instead a tentative smile spread onto her face._

 _"Not scary?" She asked Luke._

 _"Not scary," he told her, returning her smile._

Lorelai waved her hand in the air as if to dismiss the thought.

"This is different," she said. "Rory's right about this. It _does_ feel kind of gross to wipe the eraser shavings away if you really think about it."

"What is she supposed to do if she has to erase something at school?"

"Oh, Lane wipes her paper off for her. Lane doesn't think it's gross."

Luke shook his head again, still in disbelief. First wet grass and now this.

Sometimes he wondered how they would manage to get that little girl to adulthood.

* * *

 **A/N:** A little scene inspired by PuppiesRCute, who reminded me of one of Rory's little quirks: Refusing to step on wet grass until she was three.


	42. Super Luke

_It is early spring this time. The day seems normal—Luke is gone before either of the Gilmore girls wake up. Lorelai takes Rory to school before heading to the Inn._

 _She never remembers what it is that Michel says, only that he is bugging her about something. And then, suddenly, in the middle of Michel's droning, her whole body goes cold. She knows_ something _is wrong, but she doesn't know what._

 _"_ _Rory!" Lorelai yells, so loudly that Michel drops his lemon-strawberry detox water._

 _"_ _All the calories I will not lose today are all your fault," Michel pouts. This part is always the same. "If I were in charge, I would take the dollar equivalent amount out of your check!"_

 _Usually Lorelai would ask Michel what, exactly, his conversion formula for calories to dollars was, but not now. Not when it feels like ice has replaced the blood in her veins. She pushes past Michel to get to the phone hanging on the wall._

 _Her hands are shaking so much that she doesn't know if she'll actually be able to dial Luke's number without messing up._

 _"_ _Someone took Rory!" Lorelai yells into the receiver as soon as it stops ringing. She doesn't even wait for Luke to say anything._

 _She doesn't even know how she knows, with absolute certainty, that what she has said is true. Lorelai doesn't even know_ who _took her child, only that someone has._

 _"_ _From school!" Lorelai continues. "Someone took Rory from school!"_

 _She is suddenly a soothsayer, a fortune teller, a psychic. She can see it all unfolding before her eyes._

 _"_ _How is that possible?" Luke's voice asks on the other end of the line. "The only people on her school check-out list are me, you, Sookie, and…"_

 _Luke doesn't have to say the last name when Lorelai suddenly knows. Christopher is the one who took her baby, her Rory._

 _"_ _He kidnapped her!" Lorelai yells, her voice verging on hysterics. "He kidnapped her and he's taking her to California!"_

 _Luke doesn't say anything for so long that Lorelai thinks she may start hyperventilating. When a voice_ does _return to the phone, it's not Luke's, but Kirk's._

 _"_ _Um, Lorelai?" Kirk asks uncertainly. "Luke's face just got really red and he ran out of the diner. I don't know where he's going."_

 _Faintly over the line, Lorelai can hear the rumble and grumble of Luke's truck speeding off. Feeling oddly numb, Lorelai hung the phone back on the hook, hanging up on Kirk._

 _On the other side of town, Luke was hauling ass past city limits. It didn't occur to him, in his anger, to call the cops. He never had much faith in the miniscule Stars Hollow task force, anyway._

 _Somehow, even though Luke has never actually seen Christopher's car, he knows the sleek red sports car he catches sight of five miles out of town belongs to the bastard. He pushes down harder on his gas pedal, ignoring the groan of protest his engine gives. Luke doesn't care if the truck catches on fire—he's going to catch up to Christopher._

 _Luke is fairly certain that he will push his foot through the floorboard he is pushing so hard. Slowly, he gains inches, speeding closer to the cherry red car in front of him. This is a rural, two-lane highway they are travelling on, but traffic rules be damned. As soon as he is close enough, Luke pulls into the other lane so that he is side-by-side with Christopher._

 _Except it isn't Christopher. It's a teenage girl._

 _"_ _What the hell?" Luke mutters to himself. He looks ahead and sees_ another _sports car, identical to the one he is currently driving beside. Luke passes the car next to him so he can pursue the next sports car._

 _Countless times, Luke pulls up beside identical sports cars only to see that the driver is not Christopher. An old man, a priest, at one point Kirk even makes an appearance, but not Christopher. Not until what must be, by Luke's estimate, the hundredth car._

 _Once he sees Christopher, he decides he isn't going to let him out of his sight. Luke swings the truck wildly, purposely hitting the rear of the car. The red trunk crumples like a piece of paper but Luke's truck is unscathed._

 _The damage forces Christopher to have to pull over to the side of the road. Luke is out of his truck immediately, before Christopher has even stopped the car entirely. Before Christopher can open his car door, Luke is at the passenger side of the car, pulling Rory out of the seat. He runs with her to the truck, not even stopping to put her in the proper seat. Luke climbs back into the driver's seat and then has Rory scoot down the bench seat of the truck._

 _He pulls back onto the road immediately. Luke thinks he must surely be in the clear, until he sees a motorcade of slick red sports cars behind him._

 _"_ _You have to go fast, Luke!" Rory yells beside him. "They can't catch us! They can't!"_

 _Luke floors the truck, hoping that this old truck of his won't give out now. The road stretches out ahead of them. He has no idea how long he had driven just to get Rory. They must have miles and miles to go before they get to Stars Hollow again._

 _While Luke concentrates on driving, Rory contorts her body so that she can watch the cars out of the back window. They are driving and driving and driving, but they aren't going fast enough. The sports cars are gaining on them. Some are so close that mere inches separate them from Luke's truck. These cars, they start to surround Luke—behind, both sides, and a crumpled car, Christopher's car, moves to block Luke from the front and then—_

Lorelai woke with a start. Despite the heavy weight of her bed covers and Luke's body close beside hers, she was drenched in a cold sweat. Her breath came in heaving puffs.

Luke rolled so that he was closer to Lorelai. He reached an arm out and pulled her against his chest.

"Bad dream again?" He asked, his words muffled by Lorelai's dark hair. She nodded, tucking herself as close to him as possible. "Gonna tell me about it?"

"No," Lorelai murmured against Luke's skin. "You'll laugh at me."

"Yeah," he agreed sleepily. "Probably. But you can tell me anyway."

"It was dumb," Lorelai shook her head, trying to clear her head. "Let's just go back to sleep."

"I'm not gonna argue with that."

* * *

 **A/N:** Chloe2007 wanted to see Christopher kidnap Rory and Luke save the day, so here it is... in the form of one of Lorelai's worst nightmares.


	43. Yule Never Believe This

Interestingly enough, Rory's comments the day Luke found her crying in her bedroom stuck with him. Not just because it had torn his heart up to see the little girl that way, but also because of what she had said. How that crappy kid at school had said Luke didn't want her because he and Lorelai weren't married.

It really, really got Luke to thinking. So much so that when he took Rory to New York with him to find Lorelai a Christmas present, he asked the little girl something he never expected to.

"Hey Rory," Luke said as the two walked down a city block hand in hand. Rory had yet to find something for her mother, but she did find a new pair of plaid mittens for herself.

"Yeah, Luke?" She looked up at him with her patchwork smile. Luke had never met Lorelai's parents. He had heard plenty about Richard and Emily Gilmore, but that wasn't the same thing. Rory was really the only person he could have this conversation with. And while she was wise beyond her years, she was still just a little girl.

"Do you think your mom would marry me, if I asked?" Rory was quiet beside him for a few moments before cocking her head up to look at him again. The high ponytail Lorelai had put her hair into bounced around with the motion.

" _I_ think so."

"Do you think I should ask her?" Rory smiled again and bobbed her head.

"Yes!" Rory enthused. "Then I can have _two_ dads."

Luke smiled and nodded at her in agreement. He was going to leave it at that, but Rory clearly had different plans. She began to tug on Luke's hand. Ever her mother's daughter, Rory knew a jewelry store when she saw one.

"Rory, what are you doing?" She looked over her shoulder at Luke like she couldn't believe he was asking her a question like that.

"You said you were going to ask her, so let's go get a ring."

Luke couldn't really argue with Rory's logic. He had already made the decision, so there was no reason to drag his feet, right? So, he let Rory drag him along the sidewalk and into the jewelry store.

On the inside, the store was warm and spelled expensive somehow. Glass cases full of rings, bracelets, necklaces, and earrings lined the walls. When he stepped onto the wine-colored carpet, his boots sunk deeply into it. Luke wasn't very sure either he or Rory looked like they belonged in a shop like that.

Still, a woman with a blonde up-do stepped from behind one of the counters and smiled warmly at them.

"Hello," She said to Luke before bending down to focus her attention on Rory. "Are you here to look at all the pretty things?"

Rory smiled back at her and shook her head.

"Luke is gonna ask my mom to marry him," she said in a conspiratorial whisper. Luke felt his cheeks flush in a way that had nothing to do with the warmth of the store. The woman smiled wider at Rory before straightening and motioning for the two to follow her.

"This case here is specifically for our engagement rings," the woman told them. "I'll leave you two here to look around, and if you see something you like, let me know."

The case was _huge_. Rory's eyes were almost as big as she started to look at the rings. "This'll be the best Christmas present ever."

Luke knew nothing about rings. He knew nothing about jewelry, period. This was not his domain by any means. But from the serious scrunch of her eyebrows as she scrutinized the sparkling rings inside the case, it was obvious this was something Rory was comfortable with.

"You pick," Luke told Rory. He was met with her sparkling blue eyes as she squealed in excitement.

"Really?" She didn't really need to ask. Luke was happy not to have the responsibility anymore. He had no idea what he was supposed to look for in a ring. Instead, he watched Rory as she circled the case and looked each ring over.

It probably only took Rory fifteen minutes to choose the ring, but Luke would have sworn they were in the shop for hours. "This one, Luke."

He walked to where Rory was pointing to a ring towards the corner of the case. It was a vintage style with a silver band and a large, shining white diamond in the middle with smaller diamonds surrounding it. The setting reminded Luke of a snowflake.

Which was fitting, given the season and Lorelai's absolute love of snow.

"You think so, kid?" Luke asked, but he knew Rory was right. That ring was perfect.

Luckily for Luke, Rory happened to know Lorelai's ring size. Not for the first time, Luke was thankful that Rory's curious nature caused her to hoard information. He didn't even glance at the price—partially because it didn't matter to him and partially because he didn't want to know.

They tucked the velvet ring box into the inner pocket of Rory's coat, for safekeeping. At Rory's insistence, they found a craft store and searched the aisles until they found a glass Christmas ornament that opened in the middle and was hollowed out on the inside.

"See," Rory told him, fitting the ring box on the inside, "we can put it in here and hang it on the tree, and Mama will never ever guess it."

Luke had to admit that it was a good idea. He bought the ornament while Rory danced around him in excitement at the checkout counter.

* * *

"Did you get me something good?" Lorelai met them at the door at home with hot chocolate in hand. She tried to peek inside one of the bags Luke carried and he swatted her away.

"Santa doesn't like nosy peekers," he reminded her. This was something Lorelai had been telling Rory for weeks, because she shook each present of hers as quickly as Lorelai could wrap them.

Lorelai pouted at Luke before switching to a smile. "The weather says it will snow on Christmas."

Stars Hollow was having an off-year where snow was concerned. Usually the first snow of the year was before Thanksgiving, but there it was, a week before Christmas and no snow had touched the ground.

"And it better," Lorelai continued. "I've never _not_ had a white Christmas in all my life."

Luke hoped it did snow on Christmas, because that would make his and Rory's plan absolutely perfect.

* * *

Christmas day dawned with four feet of snow on the ground. Rory opened her stocking presents before either Lorelai or Luke even made it downstairs. They found her sitting in front of the TV, watching Christmas movies in her elf themed pajamas, eating chocolate from her stocking for breakfast.

Lorelai liked to open Christmas presents in the morning, mostly because he mother had always made her wait until after dinner to open hers when she was a child.

There were new toys and books for Rory, new fishing gear for Luke, a new pink cashmere coat for Lorelai. Neither Luke nor Rory said anything about the ornament, which Rory had hung in a conspicuous spot on the front of the tree. Lorelai hadn't noticed it at all, just like Rory had predicted.

"There's a secret present from Luke, Mama," Rory whispered to Lorelai when she couldn't take keeping the secret any longer. Luke was impressed Rory had been able to stay mum on it for so long.

"A secret present?" Lorelai asked, looking between Luke and Rory. "Are you two trying to pull one over on me?"

Luke raised his eyebrows at her and shrugged. All of them were still in pajamas, and Luke's dark, sleep-skewed hair only added to the sheepish look on his face. "Well, she did say it was a secret."

"Are you going to tell me where it is, little conspirator?" Lorelai asked Rory. The little girl shook her head and covered her mouth with her hands to muffle her laugh.

"It's on the tree, but I won't tell you _where!_ "

Lorelai stood up and started to circle around the tree. Rory laughed each time Lorelai passed the ornament without noticing it. Luke sat quietly, nervousness building inside of him and tying his stomach in knots.

"A fancy, heavy ornament?" Lorelai asked, her eyebrows knitting together as she looked at the red and gold ball in her hand.

"Open it!" Rory shrieked. Lorelai followed her daughter's instructions, though the confusion was clear on her face.

In that moment, Luke was fairly certain his heart might burst right out of his chest. This was not him. He was not the marrying type, Taylor Doose would be quick to tell anyone. But this is what he wanted, wholeheartedly.

He held his breath as Lorelai pulled open the ornament. She hadn't even opened the ring box yet when she looked up at him, her blue eyes liquid with tears already.

"Luke?" She asked in a shaky whisper. He nodded at her, the lump in his throat too heavy for him to get any words out. "Is this for real?"

"Yes," he managed to say, his voice cracking for the first time since he was fourteen.

He didn't actually say the words. He didn't need too, either. It was written on his nervous, hopeful face and Rory's shining smile beside him. In the back of her mind, Lorelai couldn't believe that Rory was in on it and that together they had tricked her.

Luke let out a sigh of relief as Lorelai opened the box and smiled wider than he had ever seen her smile. She picked a path through all of the discarded wrapping paper and sat down in front of him.

"You put it on," she told him excitedly, holding out her left hand. Luke complied, slipping the ring onto her fourth finger.

"So that's a yes?" Rory asked for Luke, her voice high pitched in her excitement.

"There wasn't ever any other answer," Lorelai told her daughter right before Luke kissed her on the mouth.

* * *

 **A/N:** Hello, my loves! Aren't I just the punniest with that title? This is another one of Alexandria Elizabeth Cullen's wonderful story ideas (Christmas), plus something a little extra. I hope you enjoyed it!


	44. Mr and Mrs

Gilmore. It was a name Luke had only ever known in relation to Lorelai and Rory. He hadn't anticipated that the last name would mean much, much more in Hartford than it did in Stars Hollow.

"You grew up _here_?" Luke couldn't describe Lorelai's apparent childhood home as anything other than a _manor_. Maybe a _mansion_. _Castle_ might fit, too. While Lorelai got Rory out of the car, Luke couldn't do anything other than gape at the house behind the wrought iron gate.

Luke's father had run a successful hardware shop when Luke was a kid. He had grown up comfortably, in a roomy two-story house in Stars Hollow. Now, standing in front of this behemoth, Luke suddenly felt like his childhood had taken place in a gutter.

"Sends a chill down your spine, doesn't it?" Lorelai asked. They had made the drive to Hartford in Lorelai's new Jeep. Well, it was new to Lorelai, anyway. She had insisted they take the Jeep rather than Luke's truck. According to Lorelai, there was a high chance a maid would take down his plate number and Emily and Richard would have Luke's whole history in a day.

Emily and Richard. Luke had to remember those names. He was so bad with names, and he did _not_ want to look like an idiot, especially after seeing the grandeur of the home Lorelai's parents lived in.

Lorelai and Rory made sporadic pilgrimages to the Gilmore home in Hartford for Christmas, Thanksgiving, and each of the girl's birthdays. That is, if Lorelai and Emily hadn't been fighting. Or if the Gilmores hadn't been traveling abroad for the holidays.

Luke had always been invited—by Lorelai, not by Emily or Richard—but Lorelai's relationship with her parents was still so tumultuous that Luke hadn't ever wanted to impose. This was actually a relief to Lorelai. While she and Rory loved the gruff diner owner, she knew Luke's five o'clock shadow, backwards baseball cap, and penchant for plaid button downs would not impress her parents.

Which is why she had insisted that Luke shave and ditch his usual attire for styled hair and slacks and a tie. Lorelai herself looked beautiful, with her hair pulled back and her royal blue dress that brought out her eyes. She had curled Rory's hair and dressed her in a pink sweater and plaid skirt.

"Why are we going to Grandma and Grandpa's?" Rory had asked over her breakfast pancakes. "Christmas already passed, silly Mama."

"It's a special not-Christmas, not-Thanksgiving, not-anyone's birthday trip so they can meet Luke," Lorelai had explained. Luke had known about this trip for two weeks and it still made his stomach feel like it was being turned inside out.

He had never met a girl's parents, not even when he was in high school. And this was much bigger than a casual high school girlfriend. He and Lorelai were already engaged.

Not that anyone save for himself, Lorelai, and Rory knew that. Lorelai hadn't worn the ring since Christmas morning. She said she felt guilty, for some reason, not telling her parents before anyone else. Lorelai pretended not to understand why she was feeling that way, but Luke saw through her.

Lorelai still cared about her parents, despite it all, even if she didn't want to admit it to herself. Luke would have felt the same way, had either of his parents been alive.

She had the ring on her right hand rather than her left for the trip to her parents. Lorelai thought hitting her parents with a 'we're engaged!' right out of the gate wouldn't go too well. She wanted to introduce Luke first, to avoid the worst of the hysterics she was sure were to come.

"Are you ready?" Lorelai asked. Rory was already holding her hand. She reached her other tiny hand up to take Luke's. This is how Rory liked to walk: in between her mom and the man she considered to be her dad.

"I don't really have any other choice, do I?" Luke asked, though he already knew the answer. Lorelai had confirmed her parents would be home for this Friday night dinner visit.

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Luke found some resolve and marched forward with Rory and Lorelai in tow. Through those wrought iron gates and up the long driveway. One foot in front of the other. Closer and closer to Lorelai's parents, whom he had only ever heard negative things about late at night when Rory was tucked into her bed.

Up the long drive, and to a heavy wooden door. Lorelai did the honors of knocking. A blonde woman wearing a maid's uniform greeted them.

The woman was too young to have worked for the Gilmores for long. Lorelai smiled politely at her as she explained who they were, but it was obvious she didn't know the blonde woman. When the maid smiles, deep dimples peek out in her cheeks.

"I'll let Mrs. Gilmore know," she says, stepping back and allowing the trio to step into the foyer. "May I take your coats?"

Lorelai was stiff beside him, and Luke was certain he had never felt so out of place in his life. Just moments after the maid disappeared, a woman dressed in a red skirt and jacket set rounded the corner.

The woman, who Luke assumed was Emily Gilmore, had a gaze that rooted him to the spot. Her eyes started at the top of Luke's head and roamed down to his feet. Never had he felt so much like a piece of meat that definitely did _not_ pass the inspection.

"Hello, Lorelai. I'm glad you were able to make it," Emily said coolly. Surprisingly, her face warmed considerably when she turned to Rory. "Rory! My, you're getting tall! And just as pretty as ever."

"Hi, Mom." Lorelai's smile was obviously forced, despite her best efforts. "Where's Dad?"

"Your father is finishing a business call in his study. God forbid the man not work at all hours of the day," Emily said with an eyeroll before raising an eyebrow at her daughter. "Well, are you going to introduce me to this boyfriend of yours?"

Lorelai felt her cheeks turn red. She was so used to Stars Hollow, where everyone knew each other, that introductions had slipped her mind. And there was Luke, waiting nervously and probably being deemed an idiot by her mother.

Taking a deep breath, Lorelai motioned with her hand to Luke. "Mom, I would like you to meet Luke Danes. Luke, this is my mother, Emily Gilmore."

Luke extended his hand for Emily to shake. She took his hand limply, with what his father had always called a 'dead fish' handshake. Still, Luke plastered what he hoped was a smile on his face. "It's nice to meet you, ma'am."

"Well, it's certainly been long enough. From what I understand, you've been in my daughter and my granddaughter's life for quite some time now."

The sweet-coated acid in Emily's voice kept Luke from responding with anything other than a nod. He didn't know how to reply to that kind of false peppy tone. Without another word, Emily turned on her high heel and sauntered out of the foyer.

Lorelai sighed and motioned with her head for Rory and Luke to follow her into the Gilmores' sitting room. All three of them took a seat on a tufted pink couch while Emily stood at a drink tray with her back to them.

"Martini for you, Lorelai? And a root beer with a cherry in it for Rory?" Emily started mixing the drinks before anyone could give an answer. "Luke, you strike me as a beer man, but you'll have to excuse me, as we don't have any on hand. Richard prefers scotches and whiskeys."

Luke sent a desperate glance at Lorelai. _Scotch, neat_ , she mouthed to him.

"Oh, uh, that's okay. Scotch is fine with me. Scotch, neat."

"Very well," Emily quipped. She divvied out the drinks just as a massive man with neatly combed silver hair stepped out of a study.

"Oh, Lorelai, Rory! Hello. I didn't know you were already here. It's hard to hear anything over shareholders crying in your ear via phoneline." Unlike eagle-eyed Emily, Richard didn't immediately realize the girls weren't alone. He gave a start, like he was genuinely surprised to see Luke sitting in his house.

"Who's this?" Richard asked, his eyebrows raised as he turned to his daughter. Again, Lorelai launched into introductions. When Richard met Luke's hand, it was with a much stronger grip than his wife's.

Luke would like to say that he remembered his first dinner at the Gilmore house, but that would be a lie. It would become a blur almost immediately after Luke's foot stepped over the threshold after dinner.

He remembered being served salad with a sour dressing he had never had. He remembered Richard's booming laugh when he asked Luke if he would ever consider franchising the diner, and Luke had sheepishly admitted that sounded like more work than it would be worth. He definitely remembered the way that Emily's sharp eyes seemed to look right through Luke as if he were transparent.

"You look shell shocked," Lorelai teased once the door had shut behind him. Luke held Rory in his arms. She was too big to carry, but she had fallen asleep sometime after dessert. Luke remembered dessert, too—tiramisu cheesecake.

"I think I am," Luke admitted. "That was… something else."

"I'm sorry they grilled you like that." And, oh, they had. They wanted to know every detail about Luke. Where he had grown up, did he have siblings, what did his parents do before their deaths?

Emily, at one point, described his humble beginnings and business ventures as 'quaint'. She made a half-hearted promise to come and visit Stars Hollow, to both see where they lived and try the Luke's fare at the diner.

He knew he was being picked apart. He knew he didn't meet the standards. He was one hundred percent sure he didn't give a damn.

"Will it always be like this?" Luke asked as he buckled Rory into the car. She didn't wake up once.

"No, I'm sure they'll get bored and distracted after a couple of years."

"Oh, well if _that's_ all." Luke kissed Lorelai before opening the driver side door for her. "I love you for never having made me come here before."

"Just wait until we come back next week to tell them we're engaged."

Lorelai didn't want to return the very next week, but Emily had insisted. She literally would not take no for an answer. She said she didn't have enough time with Rory, since she had fallen asleep.

"I would rather listen to Taylor drone on and on for hours on end. But I guess, for you, I'll come back."

"So considerate. Just remember, I spent sixteen years straight in that house. You were only there for five hours."

* * *

 **A/N** **:** Oh, boy... Taking on Emily and Richard is something I have not been looking forward to. They are intimidating characters to write! Hopefully I did them a smidge of justice. I wanted Luke's first time meeting the Gilmores to be something y'all saw. I know there was some confusion last chapter. I think we can all admit that, no matter how much we love Gilmore Girls, there is something lacking in the continuity. At some points, Lorelai and Emily both makes references to somewhat regular visits throughout the years, yet in the first season, Rory acts as if she's never met her grandparents a day in her life. Hopefully this chapter helps set somethings straight, as far as the timeline of this story goes. :)


	45. Gilmores in Stars Hollow

Given their total lack of interest in him during the dinner in Hartford, Luke never expected Emily and Richard to really visit Stars Hollow. And he was thankful for that, because as much as he might have poked fun at his town, it was his haven.

Color Luke surprised, though, as just days later Kirk walked into the diner looking shell-shocked.

"Did Miss Patty tell you stories about her time in Paris again?" Luke teased him as he took a seat at the counter.

"I think my will to live has been killed," Kirk said, glancing up at Luke helplessly. "If you dig deep enough on the left side of the gazebo, you just might find it."

Luke laughed, which apparently was the wrong reaction, because Kirk started vigorously shaking your head.

"Don't laugh! The murderers of my will to live were looking for _you_." That gave Luke some pause.

"What do you mean?" He asked. " _Who_ was looking for me?"

Kirk shrugged his thin shoulders. "They didn't tell me their names…but it was a man and a woman, and they looked rich, and they really, _really_ wanted to eat at the diner. I tried to steer them somewhere else, because I knew they would make you grumpy, but—"

The words tumbling out of Kirk's mouth was cut short by the diner door opening behind him. Luke's head popped up to see Richard holding the door open for Emily, who was having a hard time hiding the disgust that was scrunching up her face.

Luke was suddenly very self-conscious about his backwards baseball cap and flannel shirt. He even almost took his hat off, but he stopped, knowing his hair would be wild underneath. Kirk scattered, scurrying away to a corner table where Morrie and Babette were sitting.

It took Emily and Richard a few heart-pounding minutes to spot Luke behind the counter. Once they did, Emily's scrunched nose and pinched mouth was instantly replaced with a cool smile.

"Luke!" Emily cooed at him as if he were a child. "We've been looking for your diner all morning! You know, it's very misleading to have the hardware sign on the front of the building. It really distracts from the sign with your name on it."

Of course, Taylor Doose was just a few tables away when Emily said that. Being Taylor, he couldn't pass up an opportunity to chide Luke.

"Ma'am, I have told him the same thing, but he is _stubborn_. This should be a lesson to you, Luke, that you should learn to take a little constructive criticism." Luke sent Taylor a dirty look, but didn't bother to retort at the moment. He didn't think starting one of his and Taylor's shouting matches would be a good idea just then.

"It was my father's old sign," Luke said in what he hoped was a calm voice. "I keep it up in remembrance of him."

While Emily had Luke pinned under a judgmental gaze, Richard was looking all around the diner like he was evaluating it. "This ceiling is rather lower than the outside would suggest."

"There's an office space upstairs," Luke explained.

"Interesting," Richard said, still looking all around.

"Running a diner must be so fun," Emily continued in a chipper voice, though her face betrayed her. It was obvious there was no way Emily Gilmore would ever consider Luke's chosen path in life _fun_. "It seems you certainly get to dress comfortably for the job."

The criticism made Luke blush. He nervously wiped the palms of his hands on his jeans.

"Can I, uh, get you two anything?" Luke wanted to kick himself for how his unease came through in his voice. Emily smiled one of her unsettling smiles again and shook her head. Her hair didn't dare move even a fraction of an inch.

"No, that's quite alright, Luke. We're off to see Lorelai next. Perhaps you could give us better directions to the Independence Inn than the directions we got from some nervous wreck of a boy to get here."

Luke didn't bother to tell Emily that Kirk wasn't a boy and was actually close to Luke in age, though it was hard to believe.

"Oh, yeah, of course." Luke tried not to let the relief show as he explained to Emily how to get to the Inn. The fact that the Gilmores would soon be out of his diner filled him with more joy than anyone could guess.

As soon as the door shut behind Emily and Richard, Luke let out a long sigh of relief. Then he ran for the diner phone. In his haste, it took him three tries to get the number to the Independence Inn correct.

"Independence Inn, how may I help you?" Michel's bored-sounding voice came over the line.

"Michel, I need to talk to Lorelai." There came a sigh from a Frenchman, and Luke could just imagine the eyeroll that came along with it. Michel didn't bother to cover the phone as he told Lorelai her 'lumberjack man' was on the phone for her.

"Did you know your parents are in Stars Hollow?" Luke asked before Lorelai's 'hello' was even all the way out of her mouth.

"…What?!"

"And they're coming your way. Kirk told them how to get to the diner, your mother berated me for a few minutes while your dad appraised the place, and then they asked for directions for the Inn."

"If you didn't give them fake directions, I just might dump you. Son of a—" The last part was said in a whisper, and then the line went dead.

Luke hung the phone back on the receiver and tried to get through the rest of his day. Lorelai was working late that day, and he was supposed to pick Rory up from school. He hoped and prayed that Richard and Emily would be out of Stars Hollow before then.

But of course, Luke doesn't have that kind of luck. As he walked to Stars Hollow Elementary, he saw Rory skipping circles around Richard and Emily as they argued with Rory's teacher.

"We're her _grandparents_ ," Emily practically spit at the teacher. "I don't know what is so hard to understand about that."

Luke had to give Rory's young teacher credit. She stood her ground against Emily. "I'm sorry, but there are only two people on Rory's approved pick up list, and that's her mother and Mr. Luke Danes. I can't let Rory leave with you, because I don't have a note or a phone call from Lorelai approving it."

"There's my Luke!" Rory interrupted Emily before she could go on another tirade. The little girl went running, her backpack and lunchbox swinging wildly as she flung herself at Luke.

"I've got her, Miss Berry." Luke gave an embarrassed wave to Rory's teacher, feeling deeply uncomfortable with the Gilmores outward display of their sense of entitlement.

"Do you always pick Rory up from school?" Emily asked, stepping away from Miss Berry and toward Luke. He set Rory down on her feet after their hug and felt her slip her hand into his.

"Uh, most days. The diner is just down the street, so I'm a lot closer than Lorelai." Luke started walking back to the diner. Kirk always watched the diner for Luke when he went to pick Rory up, and he charged a dollar a minute. Luke hated to give Kirk more than five bucks.

"And you shut the diner down to come and get her?" Unlike the malice he often found in Emily's voice, Richard sounded genuinely curious. Luke shook his head.

"No. The nervous wreck of a boy who gave you directions keeps an eye on it for me." Never had Luke found himself particularly protective of Kirk until that day. It was an odd feeling for sure.

Emily scowled at Luke's word choice, but the twinkle in Richard's eye showed that he, at least, found it funny.

"And what do you do after school?" Emily turned her attention away from Luke and to Rory.

"I do my homework at the diner and Luke makes me a snack and when Momma is done with work, she comes and gets me and we go home." Rory said this all with a wide smile. Luke was suddenly jealous of her little-girl outlook on the world, because she obviously wasn't sensing all the discomfort the adults were feeling.

He was able to strike a tiny bit of luck when Richard confessed that they were hoping to get their own Stars Hollow tour via Rory. She was little, but Luke knew she knew the town like the back of her hand. Luke asked first if there was any homework Rory had, but she shook her head, so he took her school things and passed her hand along to Richard.

Luke loved Lorelai and Rory, but he'd be a damned liar if he didn't say her parents were stressful.

* * *

"Why do I feel like I ran a marathon today?" Luke asked several hours later when Richard and Emily had taken their leave of the town. "How do your parents have the ability to put me in physical pain without actually touching me?"

Lorelai shrugged, her back pressed against the front door she had just seen her parents out of. "That's the question of my life."

She scrubbed at her face with her hands. The engagement ring had been moved over to the left, after Emily had called Lorelai out on keeping the secret. _I'm not an idiot. I know my diamonds. I know an engagement ring when I see one._

"Now you'll have endless Fridays to collect data until you reach a conclusion." Emily had also berated and guilted both of them, for Lorelai's never telling her parents how serious things were with Luke. Apparently, Lorelai had only ever spoken of Luke in passing to her parents. Emily was 'flabbergasted' that her daughter had neglected to tell her that Luke had lived with them for a handful of years before the engagement.

There was absolutely no consolation in this situation, according to Emily, unless it was rectified with more frequent visits, so that she and Richard might properly get to know Luke. By 'frequent visits', she really meant weekly, of course, and so was the birth of the tradition of Friday night dinners at the Gilmore house.

"Don't remind me," Luke grumbled. "I'm going to have to buy another tie."

" _Sss._ Multiple. Like, three-hundred sixty-four more, because my mother will remember everything you wear. She's like a savant, collecting information she can use against you later. Might want to add some more dress shirts to that shopping list, too, sweets."

"At least we can tell everyone else now," Luke said, nodding towards Lorelai's ring. She held her hand out in front of her hand as if appraising the piece of jewelry.

"It does look better on my left hand. Better real estate on that side." She looked up at Luke, a teasing sparkle in her blue eyes. "Am I worth signing away your Friday nights for the rest of your life?"

Luke shrugged and took her into his arms to kiss her. "I don't know, maybe. If not, I'll just divorce you and take your inheritance."


	46. The Town-Wide Tizzy

Luke Danes was, by his own admission, a simple man. He had his routine with Lorelai and Rory and his diner, and he liked to stick to it.

He did not like attention.

Unfortunately for Luke, his routine was about to be destroyed now that his engagement to Lorelai was becoming public.

You see, Luke had severely underestimated the contagious excitement that was Sookie St. James. The Monday after the dinner with Lorelai's parents had started off normal. Luke had woken up early, like he always did. He went to work in the diner, like he always did.

Suffice it to say, Luke was entirely confused when Kirk came into the diner and pulled the string on one of those little champagne popper fireworks, showering Luke with multi-colored strings of confetti.

"What the hell are you doing? Those can still burn people, you know." Luke shook his head, dislodging the confetti from his hat.

"Luke, we're celebrating!" Just as the words left Kirk's mouth, Babette and Miss Patty came through the door. They were nearly pushing each other, each vying to be the first one through the door.

"How did Kirk find out before we did? He's not even a part of the gossip circle in front of Bootsie's stand." The two older women stopped just short of the counter. Luke had never been so thankful for it before. He was sure that had it not been there acting as a barrier, at least one of them would have grabbed him by now.

"Find out what?" Luke was thoroughly confused. While he had time to bask in the glow of being newly engaged, the town had been in the dark. It was already old—if still exciting—news to him.

"Sookie's been making the rounds, telling everyone she sees," Babette said, a little out of breath from her good-natured tussle with Miss Patty. "Took long enough, Rory's practically grown, you know!"

Before Luke could inquire further, Taylor came in behind them. "Is it true? Tell me it's true. It would be a perfect write-up for tourist brochures."

Exasperated, Luke threw his hands up in the air. "I give up. Is this one of those cases of mass hysteria? Or is it another gas leak? Has the whole town gone insane?"

 _Or more insane_ , he thought, as he had always considered Stars Hollow to be inhabited with mental facility escapees. He truly didn't have a clue what this was about, or why it had to involve him.

"Just tell us it's true, doll! You and Lorelai _are_ engaged, aren't you?"

This made Luke pause. _That_ was what this was about? One of the only things he agreed with the town about was how much Lorelai and Rory should be loved. Still, that was his and Lorelai's personal life, and, as always, his small town felt entirely too encroaching.

"Yes," Luke said begrudgingly.

"We are. But all of _you_ ," he said, making a sweeping motion toward Taylor, Miss Patty, Babette, Kirk, and the patrons of his diner who were unashamedly watching the encounter, "are all lousy gossips."

"What, you've got a monopoly on excitement now, Lucas?" Miss Patty asked, using his full name purposely to bother him. "I hadn't realized. You've got his excitement ownership certificate on file, don't you, Taylor?"

Luke was fed up with all of them. He made a big show of rolling his eyes. "Go be excited somewhere else."

"Geez, not even getting engaged can soothe his bad attitude. I hope Lorelai knows what she's in for," Taylor grumbled as Luke shooed them away from him. He was not above throwing each and every one of them out of the diner, if need be.

Unfortunately for Luke, it did not end there. When he went to the Doose's later that day, at least ten people (by his count) stopped him to tell him congratulations. And then five more before he even made it back to his truck.

By the time he got home, he was completely exhausted from dealing with his least favorite aspect of life: other people. As he pulled into the driveway, though, he noticed that the front porch was overtaken with flowers, gift baskets, and balloons.

Luke had to pick his way around the mess just to get to the front door. Once he managed to get the door open, he saw the same scene repeated on the inside.

"Lorelai," he called out. "You have _got_ to stop talking to people. Your popularity is suffocating me in the form of overpowering flower scents."

Lorelai and Rory both poked their heads over the back of the couch, each of them with a hand in their shared box of chocolates.

"I think it's awesome," Rory admitted, her chocolate stained cheeks stretching into a smile.

"You can thank Sookie for all of this," Lorelai said. "I _only_ told her. She did the rest of the work for me. She actually let the kitchen staff do besides watch for once while she called everyone in town."

Of course it was Sookie's doing. She loved Lorelai as much as Luke did. He should have expected something like this from his fiancée's best friend. Luke could only shake his head and try not to step on delicate flower petals as he brought in the groceries he had bought.

While he agreed that Lorelai deserved all the attention in the world, he only wished it wasn't also directed at him.

* * *

 **A/N:** I am so sorry I have been so absent! Working and going to school takes up a lot of time, but I am trying to get better about updating, I promise.


	47. Luke's Hair Salon?

Luke had always held the opinion that women were confusing. This opinion only got stronger the more time he spent with Lorelai, but it really increased tenfold when he decided that he should learn how to braid hair for Rory. Never mind that this had been self-inflicted; that didn't matter.

What was important here was that women made no sense.

"Luke, you gotta remember my head actually exists under here," Lorelai said, swiping at his hand in her hair when he pulled a little too hard. "What is with your sudden interest in hair styling?"

He had asked Lorelai to show him how to do hair after one morning when Rory was nearly in tears because Lorelai had to go to work earlier than usual and hadn't had time to do Rory's hair. Once she realized Luke had nothing to offer other than an extra baseball cap, Rory had been devastated.

"I already told you," Luke grumbled, trying to remember what he was supposed to do with the three strands of hair in his hands. "For Rory."

Lorelai remembered, but she wanted to hear him say it again. Every time he did, it brought a big smile to her face.

The three-strand braid had been easy for Luke to master. But a French braid was proving more difficult for him. Of course, French braids were what Rory preferred.

"You have to add more hair each time," Lorelai reminded him. He was persevering, even if Lorelai's dark hair was more tangled than braided at this point.

"I just don't know why women have to make everything so complicated." Luke gave up on his most current attempt and carefully undid the braid from Lorelai's hair. He picked up the brush and started to pull it gently through the tangles he had made.

Lorelai had been sitting obediently on the floor in front of Luke, situated between his legs. Luke himself sat on the couch and concentrated on Lorelai's hair while she watched TV.

"It's witchcraft," Lorelai told him. Despite how often he forgot to be careful and tugged on her hair, Lorelai loved what Luke was doing. "Salem wasn't wrong. We just got better at hiding it."

Luke ran his fingers through Lorelai's hair, separating it out into three strands again. "Okay, so I add more hair just on the outside pieces, right before I put them into the braid?"

Lorelai nearly nodded her head before realizing that would probably mess Luke up. She remembered at the last second to say, "Yes."

Even though she couldn't see his face, Lorelai could imagine the look of concentration on Luke's face. Eyebrows knit together, mouth scrunched to the side.

This braid seemed to be the best so far, as much as Lorelai could tell. Luke was quiet as his hand worked in her hair. The gentle pull relaxed Lorelai, making her eyes almost droop closed.

That is, until Luke said a very naughty word that rhymed with 'duck'. "I thought that one would be a winner."

Lorelai's voice was fuzzy. Luke's braiding had almost put her to sleep. She was so close to slumber that she rested her head against Luke's leg, not even caring that her hair was half-braided.

"I want to go back in time and punch whoever invented this braid."

"Mmm, we'll work on making a time machine tomorrow." Luke sighed. He worked the braid out of his fiancée's hair before picking her up from the floor.

"Where are we going?" Lorelai asked, those she didn't fight him. Instead she snuggled her cheek against her chest.

"To bed," Luke told her. "I'll never figure it out if you're asleep. You have to talk me through it."

"Michel can French braid," Lorelai told him. "Maybe he can tell you how in man-terms."

"Too bad Michel hates me," Luke reminded her. Lorelai smiled against the fabric of his t-shirt.

"Yeah, I guess that does make things a little difficult."

Luke shook his head as he carried Lorelai up the stairs to their bedroom. She was asleep before he reached the top step.


End file.
